The Impressions: The Curtom Years

Impressions_BestOfCurtomYearsThe Impressions’ Hot 100 singles, 1968-76

The Impressions have a long history, rooted in their late-50s Tennessee origins as The Roosters, growing through their 1960s reformation in Chicago as the Impressions, and continuing to the present day as a live act. Their earliest hits featured Jerry Butler as lead singer, their fertile middle period was voiced by Curtis Mayfield, and their post-Mayfield years were fronted variously by LeRoy Hutson, Ralph Johnson, Reggie Torian and Nate Evans. Many of the group’s iconic sides were waxed for ABC-Paramount in the mid-60s, but this 1968-76 run on Mayfield’s Curtom label is highlighted by both hits (“This Is My Country,” “Choice of Colors,” “Check Out Your Mind” and “Finally Got Myself Together (I’m A Changed Man)”) and Mayfield’s growing sophistication as a composer and social critic.

These eighteen tracks include all of the Curtom singles that cracked the Top 100, plus “Loving Power,” which bubbled under at #103, and “This Time,” which was released by Cotillion. Following Mayfield’s departure (his last lead vocal here is 1971’s “Ain’t Got Time”), the lead slot was passed between Leroy Hutson (“Love Me”, a Mayfield song), Fred Cash (on the Preacher Man album, not sampled here), Ralph Johnson (“If It’s in You to Do Wrong” and “Finally Got Myself Together (I’m A Changed Man)”) and Nate Evans (“This Time”). The group’s gospel foundation, sophisticated soul style and trademark harmonies continued to flourish, though only “Finally Got Myself Together” brought them back to widespread commercial success.

The set’s 12-page booklet includes detailed liner notes by A. Scott Galloway, and the track list’s sampling of late-60s-to-early-70s sides provides a good introduction to the group’s Curtom era. There’s nearly a dozen more Curtom singles to be heard, some non-charting and some that charted only R&B, as well as a full catalog of albums. For a deeper look, check out the many original album reissues, including This is My Country, The Young Mods’ Forgotten Story, Check Out Your Mind!, and Times Have Changed. For a listen to their earlier years, check out The Complete A & B Sides 1961-1968. But for an introduction to Mayfield’s last years with the group, and their post-Mayfield singles, this is a great place to start. [©2016 Hyperbolium] 

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The Kingbees: The Big Rock

Kingbees_TheBigRockRockabilly revivalists’ 1981 sophomore outing w/bonus tracks

Omnivore’s bonus-laden reissue of the Kingbees debut album is now matched by a reissue of the band’s lesser-known follow-up. Originally released in 1981, the album stalled amid label problems and the band’s breakup. Lead bee Jamie James recorded four more tracks with a new rhythm section, and they’re included here as bonuses along with fresh liner notes, photos and a period press release. As on their debut, the band remained grounded in rockabilly, but never allowed themselves to become enslaved by retro fashion. Their goal was to make “short, snappy and punchy rock ‘n’ roll songs,” and though James, bassist Michael Rummans and drummer Rex Roberts took inspiration from the stand-up style of rockabilly, they weren’t limited by it.

What’s especially impressive is how the group recorded rump-shaking rockabilly with a crisp ‘80s studio sound, without surrendering to the era’s sterility. James’ original songs thread seamlessly with covers of Charlie Rich, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. The bonus tracks, three originals and a cover of the Burnettes’ “Tear it Up,” were recorded the following year with bassist Lloyd Stout and drummer Jeff Donovan, and appeared briefly as singles on James’ indie label. The extras expand a great album that was saddled with lousy timing. This is an essential companion to the band’s debut, and well worth the shelf (or disk) space of rockabilly connoisseurs. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

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Juke Box Rhythm

DVD_JukeBoxRhythmRemake of Roman Holiday w/Johnny Otis, Earl Grant & The Treniers

This music-rich 1959 film comes from the incredibly prolific producer Sam Katzman, and though billed as a “jukebox musical,” its wide palette of artists and entertainment is more of a variety show. The plot is basically an American rewrite of Roman Holiday, but it’s the music and entertainment sequences that are the film’s draw. Earl Grant plays organ, sings and backs up Jack Jones on a fun throwaway called “The Freeze.” George Jessel, Toastmaster General of the United States, sings and tells jokes, the Treniers perform “Get Out of the Car,” Johnny Otis does “Willie and the Hand Jive,” and Les Nitwits provide comedy relief with vaudeville-styled Dixieland. There’s hot jive dancing, and the film culminates in a Jukebox Jamboree. Worth catching for the music and comedy set pieces. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

Eric Carmen: Eric Carmen

EricCarmen_EricCarmenCarmen’s only solo album of the 1980s, reissued with bonuses

For those who grew up with the transcendent guitar-pop that Eric Carmen made with the Raspberries in the 1970s, this 1984 solo album may be a bit of a surprise. The transition from power pop to power ballads was seeded on his earlier Arista solo albums, but this Bob Gaudio-produced set dials down the charging guitars in favor of keyboards, strings and slick studio drums. Carmen was still singing beautifully and writing catchy songs, but Gaudio draped them in sounds that have become dated. Whether that’s good or bad probably depends on how much you like the commercial sounds of the ‘80s, and whether you’re looking to spark a nostalgic memory.

“You Took Me All the Way” reaches back to the Raspberries’ “Go All the Way,” but its guitar is undercut by the modern rock production. “Maybe My Baby” opens with a great a cappella passage, but the synths sap the song’s charms. Only “As American as Apple Pie” provides the unalloyed guitar rock Carmen had wanted to deliver in the first place. The latter was produced by Don Gehman after Carmen and Gaudio fell out over the album’s direction. Carmen’s one and only album for Geffen spun off the hit “I Want to Hear It From Your Lips” and the lesser-charting followup, “I’m Through With Love,” both of which also found success on the adult contemporary chart.

Varese’s reissue, the first in more than twenty years, includes full-panel cover art and lengthy liner notes by Larry Watts that detail Carmen’s history before and after the Raspberries. Sure to find favor with fans are the bonus tracks that include the single mix and the Jellybean Benitez remixed 12” of “I Want to Hear It From Your Lips.” Carmen would strike chart gold with 1987’s “Hungry Eyes” and 1988’s “Make Me Lose Control,” but wouldn’t drop another full album until 1997’s Winter Dreams (and its 2000 reissue I Was Born To Love You). This 1984 tug-of-war with Bob Gaudio has many charms, and its reissue will be welcomed by Carmen’s fans. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

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The Traveling Wilburys: Collection

TravelingWilburys_CollectionStandard, deluxe and vinyl re-reissues of the Wilburys catalog

Originally released in 2007, this 2 CD + 1 DVD set collects together the Wilbury’s two original albums, a quartet of bonus tracks, a 25-minute documentary, “The True History of the Traveling Wilburys,” and all five of the group’s music videos. It’s a testament to Rolling Stone’s assessment that the Wilbury’s were “one of the few rock supergroups actually deserving to be called either super or a group.” The group’s debut, Volume 1, shot up the charts to #3 in 1988, while the follow-up (which was recorded after Roy “Lefty Wilbury” Orbison’s passing), just missed the Top 10 two years later. With the original albums having gone out of print in 1995, the pent-up demand sent the original 2007 issue of this set to the top of the UK charts and into the U.S. Top 10.

From the group’s start, George Harrison was the ringleader, with close connections to Orbison, Dylan, Petty and Lynne. And it was Harrison’s need for a B-side that sparked the group’s genesis. But when the initial results proved too good for a B-side, and the time together proved so enjoyable, the quintet went back into the studio (actually Dave Stewart’s home studio) to fill out an album. The results had an off-the-cuff aliveness that exemplified music made by musicians who were friends first, and the singles, “Handle With Care,” the track originally intended as a B-side, and “End of the Line,” both rose to #2 on Billboard’s mainstream rock chart. Together with “Last Night” and “Heading for the Light,” the album spawned a quartet of Top 10 hits.

The group’s second album, humorously titled Volume 3, was recorded in 1990. Though not as surprising as the debut, and with Orbison’s passing having changed the group balance, the album still resounds with the informal chemistry of friends who also happen to be top-flight music pros. The singles “She’s My Baby,” “Inside Out” and “Wilbury Twist” all charted mainstream rock, and the album went platinum (though not the triple platinum of the debut) in the U.S. It was to be the last group Wilbury outing, though Harrison would use the Wilbury name for a producer’s credit on a 1992 live album. With Harrison’s passing in 2001, any hopes of a Wilburys tour was dashed, and it was another six years until official reissues of the two albums were released by Rhino.

The initial 2007 issue of this set came in four flavors, and the 2016 reissues replicate the standard, deluxe, vinyl and digital (standard and deluxe) editions. The standard CD+DVD edition comes in a four-panel digipack with a 16-page booklet that includes Mo Ostin’s 2007 liner notes, original album liner notes by Hugh Jampton (a/k/a Michael Palin) and Professor “Tiny” Hampton (a/k/a Eric Idle), album credits, and pictorial instructions for dancing the Wilbury Twist. The deluxe CD+DVD edition adds a linen-cloth slipcase, a 40-page booklet, souvenir postcards, photocards and a sticker, as well as a numbered letter of authenticity. The vinyl edition necessarily drops the video content, but adds a third LP of bonus tracks. The digital editions match the discs, and differ from one another by the inclusion of the video elements in the deluxe edition.

All of the reissue editions include the same bonus tracks as the 2007 CDs: the previously unreleased “Maxine” and “Like a Ship,” the benefit album title song “Nobody’s Child” and a remixed B-side cover of Del Shannon’s “Runaway.” The vinyl edition, as in 2007, adds extended versions of “Handle With Care” and “End of the Line,” and the remixed version of “Not Alone Anymore.” You can scare up the extended versions on CD singles if you search, but they would have made a nice addition to complete the digital re-reissues. But that’s a nit, the music is terrific and the DVD showcases, in Tom Petty’s words, “a bunch of friends that just happened to be really good at making music.” If you didn’t pick this up in 2007, you now have a second chance! [©2016 Hyperbolium]

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The Damned: Don’t You Wish That We Were Dead

DVD_DontYouWishWeThatWereDeadSeminal punk rock legends who didn’t become icons

The Damned never get their due. Though present at the start of the UK punk movement, they never became icons like the Sex Pistols and the Clash. Despite having released what’s considered to be the first UK punk rock single, “New Rose,” and the first full length punk LP, Damned Damned Damned, their legacy remains one known mostly by music aficionados, and their music by fans. But over the course of their forty years, through numerous musical and personnel changes, the band’s output has remained surprisingly transcendent. The fractured relationships, legal rifts and innate tensions of working together for four decades hasn’t dimmed the music’s resonance, nor the band’s live appeal. Even when that live act only includes two original members. This is the story of a marathon, rather than just an initial sprint of brilliance.

Weaving together archival footage with interviews with the band, their contemporaries and those they influenced, the documentary tells several stories at once. At its heart is the story of the Damned as a seminal influence, whose chaotic, satirical style overshadowed their messages, and whose career failed to garner the lasting headlines of bands who wore discontent on their sleeves. That failure haunts the band members to this day, with drummer Rat Scabies sarcastically wondering if the Damned “were just also there” while the Pistols and Clash were changing the world. Interviews with Chrissie Hynde, Steve Diggle, TV Smith, Clem Burke, Chris Stein, Glen Matlock, JJ Burnel, Billy Idol, Dave Robinson and others testify to the Damned’s place in punk rock history, while Ian MacKaye, Jello Biafra and Buzz Osborne testify to their influence.

Unsurprisingly, the intra-band arguments often centered on money (particularly Scabies’ purchase of the band’s early albums out of a bankruptcy sale) and bad behavior. Forty years of on-again, off-again groupings seems to exposed all possible conflicts. What’s amazing is that through all the turmoil, the band outlasted their peers and successfully navigated transitions from punk rock to goth to prog-rock to new romanticism. They may not get the commercial placements of the Clash, Buzzcocks or Ramones, but the live clips show them still to be a potent stage act that’s beloved by their fans. This three-years-in-the making documentary played the festival circuit and select theater engagements before debuting on DVD in May, 2016. It’s a great watch for both die-hard fans and anyone interested in punk rock history. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

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The Bangles: Ladies and Gentlemen… The Bangles!

Bangles_LadiesAndGentlemenTheBangsThe Bangles’ Rosetta stone is their fans’ holy grail

For anyone who latched onto the Bangles before their major label makeover on Columbia, the first half of this CD remains the band’s Rosetta stone. Though hits and international fame would come later, the eight tracks released in 1981-2 remain the group’s purest statement of their 60s-tinged harmony rock. They never wrote, played or sang with more elan, and the youthful effervescence of this early work is as compelling today as it was thirty-five years ago. The group first appeared on vinyl as The Bangs with the fan club single “Getting Out of Hand” b/w “Call On Me.” Its local circulation left most listeners to meet the band, renamed as The Bangles, on the compilation Rodney on the ROQ, Vol. III, and then retroactively track down the single’s more widely circulated reissue.

In 1982, amid the the Salvation Army’s self-titled debut, Green on Red’s debut EP, the Dream Syndicate’s Days of Wine and Roses, the Three O’Clock’s Baroque Hoedown, and the Rain Parade’s first single, there was the Bangles’ self-titled five song EP on Faulty. The EP’s four original songs were the perfect lead-in to a scorching cover of the La De Da’s “How is the Air Up There?” Though reissued by IRS, the EP was mostly lost to fans the band picked up with their major label debut, All Over the Place, and even more so in the full rush of fame brought by Different Light. Bits and pieces of the EP reappeared as B-sides and on compilations, but the full EP remained unreissued until this collection was released as MP3s in 2014. Now on CD, the EP can be heard without compression.

Filling out this disc are four full-fidelity demos, a pair of 1984 live tracks, and a commercial for No Magazine. The demos include early takes of “Call On Me” and “The Real World,” a harmony-rich cover of the Turtles’ “Outside Chance” and a tough take on Paul Revere and the Raiders’ “Steppin’ Out.” The live cuts are “Tell Me” (from All Over the Place), and a cover of Love’s “7 & 7 Is.” The disc closes with 1982’s “The Rock & Roll Alternative Program Theme Song,” a tune the group recorded for George Gimarc’s pioneering radio show. The only thing missing is the promo-only 12” remix of “The Real World,” but that’s a nit. This is the holy grail for Bangles fans, especially those who never completely cottoned to the commercial polish of their Columbia years. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

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Jimbo Mathus: Band of Storms

JimboMathus_BandOfStormsFunky southern odds ‘n’ sods

Mathus has suggested that this twenty-three minute, nine-song EP, gathers errata from his brain; and given the stylistic diversity – Stones-ish rock, second-line stomp, Cash-styled country, garage punk, dark blues and string-backed hollers – he seems to be right. He caroms from style to style, but it’s held together with a soulful looseness that makes the uptempo numbers celebratory and the darker songs more leer than threat. Well, except for the tortured murder ballad “Stop Your Crying,” which is plenty threatening. “Massive Confusion” sounds like Springsteen busting out someone’s well-loved ‘60s B-side, yet it’s a fantastic original, and “Wayward Wind” suggests what Tom Waits might have sounded like had he woken up on the other side of Nashville’s tracks. Mathus is an expressive singer, letting his voice run freely to its edges and pulling back for the confessional “Slow Down Sun.” Several songs fade early, with the cork stuffed in the production bottle as soon as the lightning was captured. The brevity crystallizes the moments of inspiration, but also omits the usual musical resolutions. The songs aren’t as riddled with Southern talismen as earlier releases, but the closing “Catahoula” leaves no mistaking Mathus’ origins. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

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Dave Insley: Just the Way That I Am

DaveInsley_JustTheWayThatIAmA modern, deadpan spin on classic country heartache

Dave Insley’s latest album – his fourth – is full of loss and waiting. Waiting for the phone to ring. Waiting for a change of mind. Waiting to feel better. His deadpan delivery is both stalwart and ironic as the boozy night of “Drinking Wine and Staring at the Phone” is as much a songwriter’s document of a protagonist’s lament as as it is the protagonist’s actual lament. Someone else might drown in the heartbreak, but Insley wears his misery as a badge, and the bouncy beat, sliding trombone and barroom piano provide comic ballast. He commiserates with Kelly Willis on the duet “Win-Win Situation for Losers,” but the slightest vocal hiccup offers a crack through which his lack of passion can be seen.

Insley’s pleas are open ended, with the mild protestations of “Call Me If You Ever Change Your Mind” undercut by the title’s second (or likely fifth or sixth) chance. Waiting turns to expectation as “Footprints in the Snow” anticipates memories before they’ve even been made. Memories don’t just linger in Insley’s world, they threaten in advance, and hearts don’t so much break as they ache endlessly. But as much as he describes his pain and loneliness, the wounds are more shellshock than tears. He’s a ghost who can’t bring himself to haunt on “No One to Come Home To,” and the imagined demise of “Dead and Gone,” with a guest vocal tag from Dale Watson, brings forth humor and solace rather than sorrow.

The album departs from waiting on heartache in its latter third, with the family portrait “We’re All Together Because of You,” the philosophical “Just the Way That I Am” and fatalistic “Everything Must Last.” The horns, accordion and trail rhythm of “Arizona Territory 1904” echo Marty Robbins’ gunfighter ballads, while the lyric retells Robbins’ “Big Iron” from the outlaw’s point of view. It’s a good example of Insley’s songwriting craft and understated vocal style, which are backed throughout the album by Redd Volkaert (whose electric guitar on “Call Me If You Ever Change Your Mind” is truly inspired), Rick Shea, Danny B. Harvey, Bobby Snell, Beth Chrisman and others. It’s been eight years since he uncorked West Texas Wine, but the new vintage was worth the wait. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

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