Category Archives: Video

Tommy James and The Shondells: I Think We’re Alone Now

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Rock singles-band transitions to studio pop

Tommy James and The Shondells kicked around their Michigan stomping grounds for several years before finding regional success in 1963 with a cover of Barry & Greenwich’s “Hanky Panky.” By the time the single was rediscovered two years later by a Pittsburgh radio station, the original Shondells had gone their separate ways. James recruited a band to be the new Shondells, and in 1966 toured behind the single, cut a deal with Roulette Records and turned their flop into a chart-topping hit. Line-up changes ensued and the band hooked up with songwriter Richie Cordell who gave them the hit title track of this 1967 release, their third studio album.

Cordell wrote or co-wrote (often with an uncredited Bo Gentry) ten of this album’s dozen songs, filling out the track list with covers of the Riviera’s “California Sun” and the Isley Brothers’ “Shout.” Like the title tune, Cordell’s songs tended to pop melodies and adolescent professions of love, creating strong appeal for teens and pre-teens. Cordell later contributed more explicitly to the bubblegum genre with songs for Crazy Elephant and the 1910 Fruitgum Company, but the seeds were sewn here as he helped Tommy James and The Shondells’ transition from garage-styled frat-rockers to studio-produced pop. The album’s second hit, “Mirage,” borrows most of the hooks from “I Think We’re Alone Now,” and they were fetching enough to merit a second visit to the Top 10.

The album’s songs stood in contrast to the psychedelic works of 1967 (Sgt. Pepper’s, Are You Experienced?, Surrealistic Pillow, et al.), but unlike the group’s previous albums, which consisted mostly of material drawn from the label’s publishing catalog, these titles were fresh. Better yet, the band and their arranger, Jimmy “Wiz” Wisner, added some great instrumental touches. Wisner’s strings and horns lift “Trust Each Other in Love” beyond its bubblegum roots, and the ‘50s-styled ballad “What I’d Give to See Your Face Again” is given a terrific twist by the country piano and fuzz-guitar break. There’s a Stax-styled rhythm guitar on “Baby Let Me Down,” and the harmony vocals of “I Like the Way” are topped with a perfect horn-line.

The sound quality of these tracks varies, with most in stereo that suggests 3-track recording (instruments panned left and right and vocals in the middle), despite the 4-track studio. Tracks 1 and 11 are mono, with the latter subtly shifted to one side, moving sloppily towards the center at the 24-second mark, and popping fully into the center at the 35-second mark. The original mono single mixes of “Mirage” and “I Like the Way” can be found on the collection 40 Years: The Complete Singles (1966-2006). For most listeners, the singles collection, or hit anthologies Anthology or The Definitive Pop Collection are better places to start; but starting with this album, the band and its writers and producers had something more to say than would fit on the singles charts.

Collectors’ Choice’s straight-up 12-track reissue clocks in at under 30-minutes, leaving one to wish they’d doubled-up with a second album (or add bonus tracks), as they did for recent reissues of Jackie DeShannon, Waylon Jennings, B.J. Thomas and others. This is one of four albums (also including Gettin’ Together, Travelin’ and James’ third solo release, My Head, My Bed & My Red Guitar) billed as an initial offering from the entire Shondells and Thomas solo catalogs. The six-page booklet includes full-panel reproductions of the album’s front and back covers, and newly struck liner notes by Ed Osborne that add fresh interview material from James himself. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Tommy James and The Shondells’ Home Page

Jeremy Parsons: Doggondest Feeling

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Young country singer with a jones for early country style

Parsons’ young years, rosy complexion and boy-next-door good looks hardly prepare you for the similarity his voice holds to that of Hank Williams Sr. on the opening track. It’s no accident, as his debut pays tribute to the country music of Williams’ era, and his grassroots marketing includes Little Jimmy Dickens pitching the CD in a spot airing on RFD-TV. Parson’s is loyal to what he considers the golden era of the Grand Ole Opry and sings with a vibrato in his voice that harkens back to country music’s roots in the late 1920s and early ‘30s, his falsetto notes ranging into the same place as Jimmie Rodgers’ yodels. He reaches back to a time before to a time before country music had to be “saved” from its repeated entreaties to the pop charts. Though he fashions himself a country classicist, his vocals occasionally favor the folk tones of John Denver and Phil Ochs in his less strident moments.

Parsons writes of Hank Williams’ final night on the album’s opener, sings of his faith in “Passenger Seat,” and imagines what it was like “When My Old Man Was Young.” But mostly he writes of relationships in various states of decay and dissolution. With his chipper voice, however, the sadness and misery, particularly in the upbeat “Since My Baby Left Me” isn’t particularly teary. There’s a bit of Haggard in the guitar figures of “I Could Be Your Pick Me Up,” and producer Bernard Porter’s done a fine job of giving this record a clean sound that plays up the twang of guitars, banjos, dobros (courtesy of guest Randy Kohrs) and steel (courtesy of guest Smith Curry). As a bonus, the title track is repeated at CD’s end, but equalized to sound like a 78 with surface noise added as a patina. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Jeremy Parsons’ Home Page
Jeremy Parsons’ MySpace Page

NightWaves: Sweet Carrie

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Hook-filled synthpop ear-candy

NightWaves are a Los Angeles duo (Kyle Petersen and Josh Legg) whose synthpop is heavy on the hooks of classic radio pop. Their latest single is the sort of catchy confection that once populated MTV and formed a pillar of ‘80s New Wave radio formats. The production combines layers of synthesizers with an insistent rhythm guitar, a memorable vocal and a killer chorus. If you miss the Buggles, Human League, Depeche Mode, Yazoo (and the offshoot Assembly) and OMD, you’re sure to love this.

If you fashion yourself a remixologist, you can find the elements of the tune here as wave files. And you can find a number of other fan remixes here. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

NightWaves’ Home Page
NightWaves’ MySpace Page

Peter Wolf: Midnight Souvenirs

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One of rock’s great voices returns with something to say

Peter Wolf’s first new release in eight years will instantly make fans realize just how big a hole his absence left in their lives. It will also make you long for a time when cool rock music was everywhere, could be heard regularly on the radio, and didn’t need adjectives to claim it independent of the mainstream – it was the mainstream. Wolf’s solo works have always retained the fire of his earlier sides with the J. Geils Band, but they were also the product of an adult voice. Together with longtime producer Kenny White, Wolf’s crafted a sleek album of rock music that draws heavily on its R&B, soul and blues roots. He’s written or co-written all but one of the fourteen tracks, and covers Alan Toussaint’s “Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky.” The latter is a perfect vehicle for the Wolf showmanship.

Wolf duets on the opening “Tragedy” with Shelby Lynne, calling, responding and harmonizing as a couple dancing passionately on the razor’s edge between reconciliation and extinction. The song opens with Wolf singing against rich guitars, giving listeners a moment to luxuriate in the qualities of his voice. But as Lynne and the band kick-in, she proves herself the perfect foil and the arrangement builds and subsides with the song’s exhilarated and exhausted emotions. Romantic turmoil and opportunities are considered alongside Wolf’s thoughts on mortality. “There’s Still Time” is resolute in making the best of current opportunities, while “Lying Low” looks forward. The themes twine together in “Green Fields of Summer,” a duet with Neko Case that realizes the actions and relationships of the here and now echoe into the hereafter.

Mostly it’s women that are on Wolf’s mind. He dreams and chases, fights and makes up, keeps an eternal flame in “Always Asking for You” and laments losses in “Then it Leaves us All Behind.” There’s hard-won experience in both his optimism and heartbreak, and he expresses this with humor on the motor-mouthed soul rap “Overnight Lows.” The album closes with a pair of honorifics, the retrospective tribute to Willy DeVille, “The Night Comes Down,” and the beautifully crafted Merle Haggard duet, “It’s Too Late for Me.” Wolf sounds great throughout the album, in good voice and reveling in his blue moods; his new songs are crafted to tell stories with their arrangements as well as their lyrics. Let’s hope the next triumph isn’t eight years away! [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Taiwanese Idol

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With this season’s American Idol so painfully dull (Kara and Ellen taking up space, Paula vanished, Simon checked out and no standout contestants), it’s unsurprising that Taiwanese singer Lin Yu Chun’s performance of “I Will Always Love You” on Super Star Avenue leaves his American counterparts in the dust, bowl haircut and all.

Various Artists: Stax Number Ones

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The cream of Stax’s chart crop

It’s hard to criticize a collection of stellar soul sides, but one has to wonder what market niche this fills. All fifteen of these tracks reached the top spot on either the Billboard pop or R&B chart, and represent the tip of Stax’s immense impact on both the charts and popular culture. Presented in chronological order these tracks include iconic instrumentals, duets, and solo turns that literally defined southern R&B and hard soul. It’s an ace collection of soul classics, but at only fifteen tracks it pales in comparison to the discount-priced double-CD Stax 50th Anniversary Celebration. For only a few dollars more the anniversary set gives you everything here except Rufus Thomas’ “(Do the) Push and Pull (Part 1)” and Johnnie Taylor’s “I Believe in You (You Believe in Me),” and thirty-five more gems. Tracks 1-4 and 7 are mono, the rest stereo, and all appear to be single edits rather than longer album versions. The ten-page booklet includes credits and pictures, but no liner notes. Everything here is great, but unless you’re on a tight budget (or fifty soul classics is just too much for you to handle), the double-CD is the better bet. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Stax Museum of American Soul Music
Concord Music Group’s Stax Home Page

Herman’s Hermits: Listen People – 1964-1969

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Stellar documentary of endearing British Invasion hit-makers

Listen People 1964-1969 is one of four documentaries released as part of a five-DVD British Invasion box set by Reelin’ in the Years Productions. Like the other three, it’s a terrific collection, spanning twenty-two complete vintage performances, period promotional footage, television and stage performances, and contemporary interviews with Peter Noone, Karl Green (bass), Keith Hopwood (guitar) and Barry Whitwam (drums – sitting in front of his awesome gold-sparkle Slingerland drum set). Noone was – and is – one of the most charming front-men of the British Invasion, and the documentary reveals the band to be much more than a backing unit for their vocalist. Their hits were often the lightest of pop songs, but written, played and sung exceptionally, and the group was a charming live act.

The group’s hit singles were brought to them by producer Mickey Most, who had a golden ear for material and arrangements. Their first single, a 1964 cover of Earl-Jean’s “I’m Into Something Good,” was a worldwide smash and followed by a string of singles, some unreleased in the UK, some unreleased in the US, that kept the group at the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic well into 1967. The unusual release strategy left U.S. audiences with a different picture of the group than those in their home country; in particular, “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat,” “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter,” “I’m Henry VIII, I Am,” “Listen People,” “Leaning on the Lamp Post,” and “Dandy” were all stateside smashes that went unreleased as singles in the UK.

The documentaries’ interviews reveal the unorthodox story behind the recording and release of the music hall styled “Mrs. Brown,” and recollections of the band’s first NME Poll Winners Concert are born out by a winningly nervous performance. The group looks more comfortable with their up-tempo cover of Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World,” with the young Noone in his schoolboy suit playing the part of the song’s protagonist. It’s easy to see why he was the sort of heartthrob who induced Beatlemania hysterics in young girls. An early performance of “Fortune Teller” at the Cavern Club shows the group to have had a grittier R&B side that was mostly unused for their hits. The liner notes and commentary mention a hot version of Chuck Berry’s “I’m Talking About You” that unfortunately didn’t seem to make the final cut of the DVD.

The group’s hits rarely strayed from polite pop, failing to navigate many of the changes wrought by the latter half of the 1960s. Their recordings of songs by P.F. Sloan (“A Must to Avoid”), Ray Davies (“Dandy”) and Graham Gouldman (“No Milk Today”) took them towards folk-rock and more poetically crafted lyrics, but even as their clothes took on the fashions of 1966 and 1967 their singles remained “romantic, boy-next-door stuff.” They continued to record through the psychedelic era, having a Top 40 hit with Donovan’s “Museum” (not included here) and thickening their productions with strings and a hint of country twang on “My Sentimental Friend,” but the heavy sounds emanating from San Francisco and elsewhere spelled the end of their hit-making days.

Herman’s Hermits were a feel good band whose chipper music became anachronistic in the face of Monterey Pop and Woodstock. Their singles weren’t trendsetting (though Noone suggests his over-the-top English accent on “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” freed other British bands to abandon their faked Americana), but they were catchy, sold extremely well, and to this day remain memorable. In addition to the 78-minute documentary, the full individual performances can be viewed via DVD menu options, and bonuses include a 24-minute concert filmed for Australian television, a commentary track, and fifteen minutes of interviews that recollect the Hermits’ 1967 tour with the Who. This is a great documentary for both fans and those who only know a few of the group’s hits. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Herman’s Hermit’s Home Page
Herman’s Hermit’s UK Home Page
Peter Noone’s Home Page
Reelin’ in the Years’ Home Page

The Toughcats: Run to the Mill

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Country, folk and pop harmonies both old-timey and modern

This trio lists their home turf as the Fox Islands, a collection of small land masses off the coast of Maine, 20 miles from Portland across Casco Bay. But their warm acoustic music – harmonies, guitar, bass, banjo and drums – is bred more from the hills and hollows of the mid-Atlantic and South than the open waters of the Northeast. Dan Bolles, of Vermont’s Seven Days, has described the Toughcats as Maine’s answer to the Avett Brothers, and that’s an apt comparison. Their harmony singing has a similar sort of yesteryear charm, but they’re neither a bluegrass group nor a contemporary acoustic combo. There are pop and progressive-folk sensibilities in their melodies, and the presence of drums gives the backings some polite rock ‘n’ roll punch.

Run to the Mill, the group’s second album, features eleven originals and a cover of the Tin Pan Alley “Dinah.” The latter is rendered with a feeling for the Eddie Cantor’s ragtime flair, and a bit of hot club jazz in the strings. The original songs include sunny sounds that recall the Lovin’ Spoonful’s old-timey charms, vocal harmonies that reach to pre-Bluegrass brother acts, and folk songs, like “Happy Day,” that suggest, initially at least, Ray Davies’ quieter moments. Colin Gulley’s banjo provides both melody and percussion, adding a lengthy coda to “Happy Day,” floating to the top of “Sunshine” and breaking into a friendly solo for the instrumental “Bluegoose.”

There’s are progressive changes running through the instrumental “Joshua Chamberlain” and pop tones to “In the Middle” and “Harlet Marie,” but the modernisms are grounded in rustic roots. The Toughcats aren’t throw-backs, but neither are they a hipster’s modern riff on nostalgia. Like anyone who inches an art form forward, they’ve brought elements of the past into their own times, realizing the magic of earlier harmonies and stringed instruments in songs acknowledge the past but blossom in the present. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Sunlight
The Toughcats’ Home Page
The Touchcats’ MySpace Page

Check out one of the Toughcats’ elaborately staged entrances:

Twilite Broadcasters: Evening Shade

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Joyous pre-Bluegrass brotherly harmonizing

This North Carolina duo, Mark Jackson and Adam Tanner, sing the sort of two-part pre-Bluegrass harmonies that were popularized by the Osborne, Delmore, Monroe, Louvin and Everly brothers. The duo sings both happy and sad songs, but always with a sweetness that expresses the sheer joy of harmonizing. Accompanied by guitar (Jackson), mandolin and fiddle (both Tanner), the arrangements are simpler than a string band’s, with the guitar keeping time and the mandolin vamping before stepping out for relaxed solos. The instruments provide a platform for the voices, rather than racing to the front of the stage.

The duo performs songs written or made famous by the Delmores (“Southern Moon”), Everlys (“Long Time Gone”), Jim & Jesse (“Stormy Horizons”), and others, like Buck Owens & Don Rich (“Don’t Let Her Know”) who latched onto close harmonies that weren’t always high and lonesome. The waltzing invitation of “What Would You Give in Exchange For Your Soul” is sung in both harmony and counterpoint, and the oft-recorded “Midnight Special” sounds fresh and enthusiastic. Tanner’s mandolin steps forward for the instrumental “Ragtime Annie,” and he saws heavily on the fiddle for a cover of Doug Kershaw’s “Louisiana Man” and the celtic-influenced “Salt River.”

The public domain selections include a full-throated take on “More Pretty Girls Than One” (popularized and often credited to Woody Guthrie) on which the slow tempo draws out the chorus harmonies and begs the listener to find a place to sing along. Jackson and Tanner are fine instrumentalists, and winningly, they don’t hot-pick here with the fervor of bluegrass. Instead, they provide themselves tasteful support that leaves the spotlight on their voices and songs, and gives the record a warm, invitingly down-home feel. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

The Twilite Broadcasters’ MySpace Page

The Small Faces: All or Nothing – 1965-1968

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Stellar documentary of British Invasion giants

All or Nothing 1965-1968 is one of four documentaries released as part of a five-DVD British Invasion box set by Reelin’ in the Years Productions. It is a spectacular collection of footage that spans twenty-seven complete vintage performances, interviews with the principle band members reflecting on their time as seminal mod and psychedelic rockers, and superb vintage clips of the band creating in the studio, shopping on Carnaby Street and gigging at iconic clubs like the Marquee. The producers have performed miracles in digging up rare television and film footage, and archival interviews with Steve Marriott (from 1985) and Ronnie Lane (from 1988, his last filmed appearance) are complemented by contemporary interviews with Kenney Jones and Ian McLagan.

Though the Small Faces had only one chart hit in the U.S. (1968’s “Itchycoo Park”), their fame in the UK and Europe, not to mention their style, sound and musicianship, were in league with the Who and Stones. The band members post-Small Faces gigs brought a greater helping of stateside fame (Marriott with Humble Pie; Lane, McLagan and Jones with the Faces; and Jones with the latter-day Who), but this 101-minute documentary shows the Small Faces were a group to be reckoned with. Marriott was a ferocious front-man with an aggressive vocal delivery, hot guitar licks and a songwriting partnership with Ronnie Lane that matured from derivative R&B to original tunes that wove pop, rock and psych influences into their bedrock soul. The interviews trace the group’s original influences, the pop sides forced upon them, and the turning points at which they made artistic leaps forward.

Among the biggest events in the Small Faces’ development was a change in management and label from Don Arden and Decca to Andrew Loog Oldham and Immediate. The mod sounds and styles of their early singles quickly became psychedelic, but not before launching their new phase with the 1967 ode to methadrine, “Here Comes the Nice.” Their hair and fashions in the accompanying television performance find the band in transition between the dandy style of the mods and the floral and flowing elements of the hippie revolution. The influence of LSD can be heard in “Green Shadows” and the band’s U.S. breakthrough, “Itchycoo Park,” which McLagan suggests was a rebuttal to England’s formal system of higher education. The group’s pièce de résistance, Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake, is essayed here with a lip-synched clip of the title tune and a seven-song live-sung (but not played) set from the BBC’s Colour Me Pop.

The progression from the hard R&B of “Whatch Gonna Do About It” to their crowning concept album is impressive, but that it happened in only three years is amazing. The story of the Small Faces is told here in the band’s words and music, with interview footage woven among the music clips. The full performances, including four not featured in the documentary, can be viewed separately via DVD menu options. Lane’s full interview and a photo gallery are included as extras, along with a 24-page booklet featuring detailed credits and song notes. This disc will strike a deep nostalgic chord for UK fans, and will be a voyage of discovery for Americans familiar only with “All or Nothing,” “Itchycoo Park,” “Tin Soldier,” and “Lazy Sunday.” [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

The Small Faces’ Home Page
Reelin’ in the Years’ Home Page