Tag Archives: Rock

Sonny & Cher: Good Times

SonnyAndCher_GoodTimesSonny & Cher’s soundtrack outshines their film

The most notable element of Sonny & Cher’s 1967 film Good Times wasn’t the duo’s move into acting, the skit-based humor or even the meta-conceptual plot of a movie about making a movie. The film’s most lasting contribution to the arts was the introduction of William Friedkin as a mainstream director. Friedkin had been directing documentaries, but it was this collaboration with Sonny Bono that launched his feature filmmaking career. The film is an interesting lark, capturing mid-60s mood, design and a bit of artistic ennui, but without the acidic bite of Head. The original eight-song soundtrack gave Bono a chance to stretch out, and added several excellent titles to the Sonny & Cher catalog.

Leading off is a waltz-time instrumental version of the duo’s signature “I Got You Babe,” a title that appears again at the soundtrack’s end in a fetching acoustic arrangement. In between is Sonny’s perfectly self-deprecating “It’s the Little Things” in all its proto-Spectorian grandeur, its B-side Cher showcase “Don’t Talk to Strangers,” the sultry B-side “I’m Gonna Love You” (originally released as a Cher solo on Imperial in 1965), and several songs lifted from the soundtrack with lead-in dialogue. The latter include the stage-hall styled title tune and another of Sonny’s self-deprecating, average-guy love songs, “Just a Name.”

The bonus tracks include the single “Plastic Man” and its B-side edit of “It’s the Little Things.” The latter shortens the album track by dropping the middle stanza of the refrain. Earlier reissues have included only the edited version, so the full album take turns out to be the real bonus. Varese has used the true mono master, unlike One Way’s 1999 reissue, and though quite listenable, the fidelity still isn’t the best that the era offered. Friedkin’s original liners are included alongside new notes by Larry R. Watts, rounding out an obscure entry in Sonny and Cher’s catalog, but one that harbors several top-notch tunes. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

Cher’s Home Page

The Well Wishers: Comes and Goes

WellWishers_ComesAndGoesThe glories of a one-man power-pop band

Although the Well Wishers present themselves in plural, they are, or it is, or he is Jeff Shelton. After a decade with Spinning Jennies, Shelton ventured out on his own, all alone in the studio with the magic of multi-track recording. The results have the singular vision of a singer-songwriter, but the dynamism of a band. Think Paul McCartney’s and Emitt Rhodes’ eponymous albums, Todd Rundgren’s Something/Anything and Richard X. Heyman’s Hey Man. The hard-charging rhythm guitar and stacked vocals of “Impossible to Blame” bring to mind the Posies and the melody of “Come Around” suggests XTC. You can hear influences of Shoes, 20/20 and others, but Shelton’s romantic anguish is as original as his melodic hooks – rooted in something familiar, yet fresh. On “Ill-Equipped” he repeats the perfectly discouraged tagline “I don’t have what it takes to be alone,” which may be true in matters of the heart, but clearly not so in the studio, where he flourishes by himself. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

The Well Wishers’ Facebook Page

The Explorers Club: Together

ExplorersClub_TogetherAs if there was a missing late-60s Beach Boys album

This Charleston-bred, Nashville-resident band continues to be the foremost exponent of the Beach Boys sound. But not the surf-and-drag singles-sound of the Beach Boys c. ‘63-’64, but rather the album sounds of Brian Wilson’s growing compositional depth of ‘65-onward. Add dashes of Burt Bacharach, Curt Boettcher and Paul Williams, and you have a sense of the group’s sophistication. Few have so thoroughly imbibed the sunshine that flowed through Brian Wilson in the mid-to-late-60s as Explorers Club vocalist, songwriter and arranger Jason Brewer. When he sings “’California’s Callin’ Ya’,” you can hear Wilson’s imagery calling the South Carolinian like a sea siren. The harmonies are lush and warm, the arrangements multifaceted, the album cover an homage to Friends, and the indie record label – Goldstar – a direct allusion to the craft Brian Wilson laid into everything he produced. The spot-on evocation of late-60s Beach Boys might appeal as a parlor trick if it weren’t so beautifully crafted and so incredibly heartfelt. You can’t help but smile as this music washes over you like a warm summer wave. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

The Explorers Club’s Home Page

Matthew Szlachetka: Heart of My Hometown

The first single from Matthew Szlachetka’s upcoming album adds a hint of John Mellancamp’s heartland sentiment to Szlachetka’s California canyon rock. Produced by David Bianco, who’s worked with Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Lucinda Williams, and featuring Doug Pettibone, Kevin Savigar, Shiben Bhattacharya, Derek Brown and Dave “Mustang” Lang. A nice taste of what’s coming early next year!

Mark Erelli: For a Song

MarkErelli_ForASongNortheast singer-songwriter returns with a strong set of originals

It’s been six years since Mark Erelli released a new set of original material. In that time he’s played with Lori McKenna, Josh Ritter and Paula Cole (the latter of whom appears on two tracks here), recorded two albums with Barnstar, and released Milltowns in tribute to Bill Morrissey. Rather than taking on a coat of solo songwriter rust, Erelli’s pen has been refilled by the hiatus. His singing voice is still reminiscent of Paul Simon, but these gentle electric productions show the time off was spent sharpening his already sharp songcraft.

The album opens solemnly with a northerner’s loneliness amid the midwest’s wide-open spaces, contemplates the day’s emotional harvest and the next day’s challenges, and mulls over the existential questions that lay in the twilight. He venerates the extraordinary of the everyday in the know-how of a fixit man (“Analog Hero”), a contemplative janitor (“Look Up”) and a Dutch busker (“Netherlands”). The details of his descriptions are extraordinary, and the galloping lyric of “Wayside” demonstrates his talent for shaping words into music.

His facility is equally well spent in poetic observations of a river’s destiny (“French King”) as it is in a meditation on aging (“Magic”) or love song (“Hourglass”). And his voice fits as easily into acoustic guitar laments as full-band arrangements. He’s accumulated numerous songwriting awards over the years, but as the title of his latest album attests, his greatest reward is in writing and performing songs. This collection he takes his already estimable talents to an extraordinary new level. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

Mark Erelli’s Home Page

Velvet Crush: Pre-Teen Symphonies

VelvetCrush_PreTeenSymphoniesThe genesis of a rock classic

Although Paul Chastain and drummer Ric Menck recorded a number of singles as Choo Choo Train, Bag-O-Shells and The Springfields, they first came to wider notice as Velvet Crush with 1991’s In the Presence of Greatness. Critics and fans latched on, but it wasn’t until they released 1994’s Teenage Symphonies to God, with U.S. distribution by Sony, that they made their biggest splash. Three years and a change of producers (Mitch Easter replacing Matthew Sweet) between the two albums left a gap bridged by a few singles and an EP. The post-album afterward yawned even wider as the band mostly parked themselves, recording with Stephen Duffy, and didn’t re-emerge as Velvet Crush until the release of 1998’s Heavy Changes.

Omnivore’s sixteen-track collection helps fill the gaps, offering up Teenage-era demos and live performances. The first eight tracks cherry-pick demos previously released on the out-of-print Melody Freaks. Included are early versions of six album tracks, plus the otherwise lost “Not Standing Down,” and a cover of Three Hour Tour’s “Turn Down.” For listeners whose neurons have been organized by repeated spins of Teenage Symphonies to God, the demos provide an opportunity for renewal. You know these songs, but then again, you don’t. The pieces are there – lyrics, melodies and guitars – but not the final polish; but what the demos give up in nuanced construction they redeem in initial discovery. It’s the difference between a candid snapshot and a posed portrait – they each say something about the subject, but they also say something about each other.

Mitch Easter helped the band wring more out of their songs, and while the demos provided templates for the master takes, the album cuts provided the same for the live performances. The eight live tracks, recorded in a November 1994 opening slot at Chicago’s Cabaret Metro (and previously released on Rock Concert), show the band to be a ferocious live act. With Tommy Keene added as lead guitarist, the band goes all out to win over the crowd with their thirty minute set, and as Ric Menck said, “we got ’em by the end.” No small feat, considering they were opening for the Jesus and Mary Chain and Mazzy Star. The live set includes numbers from both Teenage Symphonies and Presence (“Window to the World” and “Ash and Earth”) and a closing cover of 20/20’s “Remember the Lightning.” This is a terrific companion to Teenage Symphonies, and an essential for the album’s fans. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels: All-Time Greatest Hits

MitchRyderDetroitWheels_AllTimeGreatestHitsMitch Ryder’s chart singles, with a splash of mono

As a recent documentary on the Grande Ballroom notes, 1960s Detroit was both a hard rocking city and the home of Motown, America’s most commercially successful purveyor of R&B. Few exemplified these dual influences better than Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. Though deeply steeped in soul music, Ryder’s biggest hits – “Jenny Take a Ride!” “Devil With a Blue Dress On” and “Sock It to Me-Baby!” – had a propulsive energy akin to Britain’s take on America’s early rock. Varese’s 16-track collection brings together all seven of the Detroit Wheels’ charting singles and four of Mitch Ryder’s solo outings. All tracks are stereo except for 5, 6, 8 and 15; the mono single of “Sock it to Me Baby” is especially welcome for its unique vocal track.

The stereo sides are crisp, but at times the extra wide soundstage is disconcerting. The opening “Jenny Take Ride” feels spread out with the handclaps panned hard-right, and lacks the punch of the mono single mixed for AM radio. On the other hand, many of these mixes provide the broad instrumental and vocal separation that plays like a revue band spread across a stage. The inclusion of Ryder’s solo singles makes this an interesting alternative to Rhino’s Rev Up set, and the stereo mixes provide an alternative to (but not a replacement for) Sundazed’s All Hits. An 8-page booklet with retro cover art and detailed liner notes by Jerry McCulley rounds out a great package. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

Mitch Ryder’s Home Page

10,000 Maniacs: Playing Favorites

10000Maniacs_PlayingFavoritesThe latest lineup performs the band’s history

Lifelong fans of 10,000 Maniacs will be familiar with the complicated personnel changes weathered by the band since its 1981 formation. But those whose fandom only intersected the band during their late-80s commercial peak may be surprised. The band’s iconic original vocalist, Natalie Merchant, left for a solo career in 1993, and the following year Mary Ramsey was promoted from touring musician to lead vocalist. Ramsey sang lead for two albums until the death of guitarist Rob Buck put the group on hiatus, and upon their return, she was replaced by Oskar Saville. But Ramsey returned as a touring musician, and with Saville’s departure, she once again stepped into the lead singer’s spotlight. Whew.

This 2015 show, recorded in the band’s hometown of Jamestown, NY, features Ramsey leading the group through material that focusses primarily on the Natalie Merchant years, spanning 1981’s independently released Secrets of the I Ching through 1993’s MTV Unplugged, but also extends to three tracks from 1997’s Ramsey-led Love Among the Ruins. It’s hard not to miss a singer of Merchant’s indelible qualities, and while Ramsey offers nostalgic hints of the original vocals, she has her own style, and adds dimension to the band’s instrumentals with her viola. This set provides a nice addition to the earlier unplugged album and the Saville-led Live at 25, and shows the band still thriving as a live act. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

10,000 Maniacs Home Page

Robert Rex Waller, Jr.: Fancy Free

RobertRexWallerJr_FancyFreeStellar covers album from I See Hawks in L.A. frontman

After seven albums with I See Hawks in L.A., singer-songwriter Robert Rex Waller, Jr. decided it was time to step out for a solo album. But unlike singer-songwriters who want to work a cache of songs that weren’t right for the band, Waller endeavored to escape his own writing by waxing an album full of cover songs. The album rambles through well known hits and deep album cuts, drawing a picture of Waller’s personal musical tapestry. Among the best known titles are a lovely piano arrangement of the Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset,” a Casio-based take on the Oak Ridge Boys’ “Fancy Free,” a synth backed version of the Hollies’ “The Air That I Breathe,” and a Waylon-esque vocal on Dylan’s “She Belongs to Me.”

Cover songs are a unique opportunity for an artist to both pay tribute to and fuse with their influences. In the best case, the cover neither replaces nor leads inextricably to the original, but illuminates new dimensions of the song, its writer and its covering artist. And that’s exactly what we get as Waller takes us for a ride through the formation of his musical consciousness and into his present day imagination. He samples from the songbooks of Utah Phillips, Neil Young, Daniel Johnston and Mike Stinson, filling out a mythical jukebox that would keep you at the bar for a few more rounds. This is a deeply personal collection that will resound strongly with Waller’s fans. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

Robert Rex Waller Jr.’s Home Page