Category Archives: Video

Arthur Conley: Soul Directions

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Conley’s tragedy turned into great soul music

Southern soul singer Arthur Conley is known to most for his perfect celebration, “Sweet Soul Music.” Based on a “Yeah Man” by his vocal inspiration, Sam Cooke, and co-written with his mentor, Otis Redding, the song topped out in 1967 at #2 on both the Hot 100 and R&B charts and became the lasting emblem of the ‘60s soul movement. But like so many true artists that have one defining single, Conley recorded terrific material both before and after the lightning strike. This 1968 album was a bittersweet affair that collected singles and album sides recorded just months after the airplane crash that killed Redding and the Mar-Keys.

Unlike Conley’s earlier hits, which had been waxed at Muscle Shoals, the album was mostly recorded at the same American Studios in Memphis where Elvis would cap his late-60s comeback. Conley wrote half the songs, including the somber memorial “Otis Sleep On,” and collected a pair from Spooner Oldham and Dan Penn. Memphis horns resound in “Funky Street,” “Hear Say” and “People Sure Act Funny,” and Conley draws from both Redding and Cooke in the pleading “This Love of Mine.” Conley saves his most scorching vocal for the Redding written and produced “Love Comes and Goes.” This is a terrific, deeply felt album that should be in the collection of all soul music fans. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

The Avalanches: Ski Surfin’

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1960s L.A. studio players cut some rockin’ instrumentals

The Avalanches were a one-off studio group formed around Los Angeles studio players Billy Strange and Tommy Tedesco on guitar, future Bread main-man David Gates on bass, and legendary Wrecking Crew drummer Hal Blaine. The original instrumentals offered here (in addition to the themed covers, “Baby It’s Cold Outside” and “Winter Wonderland”) are the sort of studio rockers that populated dozens of mid-60s albums and exploitation film soundtracks. Strange and Tedesco blaze away in their respective twangy and fuzz-soaked styles, and the rhythm section burns down the slopes. There’s little here that’s really surf music, aside from a few moments of half-hearted staccato picking; the occasional jabs of pedal steel suggest Alvino Rey and the electric piano leans to the soul rave-ups of Ray Charles. But mostly this sounds like incidental music from a low-budget AIP teen-film. And that’s a complement. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

The DeFranco Family: Heartbeat, it’s a Lovebeat / Save the Last Dance for Me

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Digital reissue of sweet radio pop from the mid-70s

The DeFranco Family – a family act from Ontario, Canada – had several hits and a terrific run in ‘70s teen magazines. The fuss was centered on the super-cute Tony DeFranco, whose 13-year-old voice was complemented by his brothers’ and sisters’ harmony vocals, yielding a sound akin to the Partridge Family fronted by Donny Osmond. What made the records work were lyrics that Tony could croon convincingly to pre-teen girls, bubblegum hooks and sophisticated arrangements by writer/producer Walt Meskell.

The group’s debut album featured their biggest chart hit, “Heartbeat, It’s a Lovebeat,” but also several other pop gems. “I’m With You” has a clever circus beat (apparently supplied played by Wrecking Crew ace, Hal Blaine) and the throwback “Sweet Sweet Loretta” combines banjo, bass, and brass. The album’s second hit, “Abra-Ca-Dabra,” is a terrific piece of bubblegum, but the real sleeper is “Gorilla,” a song so sweet it will give you a toothache. You’ll want to make sure you have some time to yourself as the album closes with Tony’s special message to you, “I Love Everything You Do.” Sigh.

The group’s second (and final) album features their third (and final) hit, a cover of the Drifters’ “Save the Last Dance for Me.” It’s the best track on the album, though Tony’s slightly funky take on Dr. John’s “Poor Boy” isn’t bad. Tony’s voice still sounds fresh and young, but the arrangements are heavier, and the delicious bubblegum sounds were exchanged for MOR ballads and overcooked Vegas-styled horn-rock. There’s very little here that stacks up to the hooks of “Heartbeat, It’s a Lovebeat” or “Abra-Ca-Dabra.” Even the love letter to Tony’s pre-teen fans, “I Guess You Already Knew,” hasn’t the craft of similar sentiments from the debut; apparently the DeFranco’s producer/songwriters had only one album of top-notch material. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

The DeFranco Family’s Home Page
Tony DeFranco’s Home Page

Tristeza: Paisajes

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Lush, thoughtful, enveloping post-punk instrumentals

Less than a year after their release of Fate Unfolds, Tristeza returns with a new full-length album of enveloping post-punk prog-rock instrumentals. Their press release name checks Spacemen 3, Felt and Talk Talk, but the strains of Televsion, Can, Stereolab and Tuxedomoon are also strong. The opening “Raise Your Gaze” threatens to transition from space into a blinding cacophony, but pulls back as the tune burns off the last of its fuel. James Lehner and Luis Hermosillo (drums and bass, respectively) provide the impulse drive, with the guitars adding a psychedelic overlay. The group adds syncopation and a Latin rhythm to “A Traves de los Ojos de Nuestras Hijas” (a title that alludes to the group’s collection of five daughters), but its funky bass line keeps things quite modern. The repetitive figures suggest post-punk instrumentalists like Pell Mell, but the intricacy of the playing reaches to jazz and prog-rock – but freed of the bombast that often sunk the latter. This is lush, melodic, rhythmic, thoughtful and enveloping. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Raise Your Gaze
Tristeza’s Home Page

OST: Original Music From the Addams Family

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Vic Mizzy’s character themes and incidental music from the 1960s TV show

This is the original music composed for the 1960’s Addams Family television series, as written by noted television and film composer Vic Mizzy. The familiar vocal version of the main theme is presented at album’s end; the longer, instrumental version that opens the album is more in line with the jazzy themes and incidental music that Mizzy scored for the show. Alongside the trademark harpsichord (most prominent on “Gomez”), Mizzy mixed a healthy dose of electric guitar, jazzy woodwinds and bouncy bass into his charts, but the female chorus and tympani will remind you that these are easy instrumentals in the vein of Neal Hefti, Nelson Riddle, Billy Mure and others. If you’re a fan of the television show you’ll quickly recognize the character themes and incidental music cues, many of which were used in abbreviated form – here you get the entire tunes. This is a great find for Addams Family fans and anyone who collects ‘60s easy-pop. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Ohio Express: Chewy Chewy

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Sweet second album from bubblegum legends

Alongside the 1910 Fruitgum Company, the Ohio Express was among the purest expressions of producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz’s bubblegum ethos. “Ohio Express” was used to name several different musical groups, including singles originally recorded by Rare Breed, a touring outfit originally called Sir Timothy & The Royals, and various aggregations of New York studio musicians fronted by the nasal vocals of singer/songwriter Joey Levine. It’s the latter group that hit with Levine’s “Yummy Yummy Yummy” (a song that plays “God Bless America” to the Archies’ national anthem, “Sugar Sugar”), and followed-up with the title track of this 1969 album. Levine would leave the group shortly after the album’s release, and still another edition of the Ohio Express, comprised of future members of 10cc, released the Graham Gouldman-penned “Sausalito (Is the Place to Go).”

Like the best of the bubblegum groups, the Ohio Express fashioned nursery-rhyme lyrics, earworm pop melodies and sharp studio production into music as effervescent as it is devoid of intellectual calories. If you’re looking for scholarly heft, you need to look elsewhere, but if you want two-minutes-thirty-eight that can lift your mood, “Chewy Chewy” is a good bet. In addition to Levine’s originals, the group covered a pair of 1910 Fruitgum Company hits (“1, 2, 3 Red Light” and “Simon Says,” apparently with reused backing tracks), employing Partridge Family-styled harmony vocals and touches of organ. There’s light psych (“Let it Take You”) and Tommy James-styled frat rock (“So Good, So Fine”), and though “Yes Sir” unashamedly borrows from “Yummy Yummy Yummy,” it shows that the hook still had life in it.

Resnick’s ballad “Fun” provides a few minute’s respite from the relentlessly chirpy bubblegum productions, and the odd bits of dialog laid in between several of the cuts suggest the quick-cutting, non-sequitur humor of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. The Chewy Chewy album is available as a two-fer with the group’s eponymous Buddah debut, the latter of which is otherwise out-of-print in the US. If you’re looking for all of the group’s biggest hits in one place, opt for the Best Of, which includes “Yummy Yummy Yummy,” “Down at Lulu’s,” “Chewy Chewy,” “Mercy,” and “Sausalito (Is the Way to Go),” but for the group’s devotees, it’s great to have the album cuts readily available. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

The Premiers: Farmer John Live

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Garage rock from the East Side

It may be true that the Premiers recorded this live, but in the studio, rather than at the Fullerton club originally claimed to be the venue. The crowd sounds may well have been dubbed in afterward, but they still create the atmosphere of a loose, enthusiastic club gig. The album’s title track (originally waxed by Don & Dewey as ‘50s R&B) was included on Lenny Kaye’s seminal Nuggets, and the rest of the tracks follow in the same vein, with unison vocals from guitarists John Perez and George Delgato, and female fans shrieking and singing along. The rave-ups feel like a Saturday night in East L.A., and the ballads, including covers of the Moonglows’ “We Go Together,” Johnnie and Joe’s “Over the Mountain, Across the Sea,” and Johnny Ace’s “Anymore” provide slow dances to hold your partner tight. Notable East Side producer, musician and songwriter Max Uballez is represented by the originals “Annie Oakley” and “Feel Like Dancing” (the latter of which mentions his classic “Slauson Shuffle”). The Premiers weren’t accomplished musicians, but that’s part of their charm; they played with the foot-stomping verve that kept the party going. The two- or three-track stereo sounds like an early Beatles record, with vocals on one side, instruments on the other, and crowd chatter on both. Switch your set to mono and have yourself a dance party! [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Johnny Mathis: Those Were the Days

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Terrific easy listening vocal pop from 1968

After an underwhelming run on Mercury, Johnny Mathis returned to Columbia in 1967 to begin a string of fine albums with arranger/producer Robert Mersey. His second album back at Columbia provided Mathis an opportunity to rework 1960s pop, folk and adult contemporary hits in his own style; chief among the covers is his romantic treatment of the title tune. Reclaiming the song from Hopkins’ dance hall hit single, Mathis and arranger Robert Mersey give the song a romantic treatment that adds Latin touches to a vocal whose cadences suggest “If I Were a Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof. Mersey leaves Mathis a great deal of room to stretch out, claiming a number of MOR classics with his trademark vocal waver, and adding a nice twist to Jose Feliciano’s interpretation of the Doors’ “Light My Fire.” The album included two adult contemporary chart hits, “You Make Me Think About You” (from the soundtrack to With Six You Get Eggroll), and a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy).” There’s nothing truly startling here, in fact the album’s craft is finely understated, but Mathis’ subtle reinvention of these hits shows the magic of his style. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Johnny Mathis’ Home Page

Jan and Dean: Surf City and Other Swingin’ Cities

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Take a road trip with Jan & Dean

As great as are the singles (1963’s “Surf City” and “Honolulu Lulu”), Jan & Dean’s first concept album doesn’t always represent their most interesting or inventive work. Heavy on covers that pale in comparison to the originals, the duo’s nasally voices weren’t well-suited to Rodgers & Hart’s “Manhattan” or Tony Bennett’s classic “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” Still, Jan Berry’s true stereo production is excellent, and there are some unusual touches in his arrangements – like fuzz guitar played against violins – that are oddly compelling. They manage to rock Freddy Cannon’s “Tallahassee Lassie” in a sun-bleached West Coast sort of way, and fare nicely with the nostalgic novelty “Philadelphia, PA” the swinging cha cha of Chuck Berry’s “You Came a Long Way from St. Louis,” and the go-go closer “Soul City.” [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]