Inviting EP sampler of singer-songwriter psych, pop, folk and blues
Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Luther Russell previews his upcoming double album The Invisible Audience with this diverse six-song sampler. Variety has always been one of Russell’s strong point, and here he offers a mix of hypnotic modern rock, drifting country-folk, chugging minimalist blues, gutsy power pop, and an airy piano waltz. There are droplets of 1970s Canterbury prog-rock, Meddle-era Pink Floyd, Revolver-era psychedelia (including fantastic “Rain†styled McCartney high-fret bass trills at the end of “Tomorrow’s Papersâ€) and the modern iterations of Oasis. It’s a lot to fit into nineteen minutes, but Russell strings it together with terrific fluidity, gaining bonus points for the electric sitar sound on the title track.
Terrific 3-CD anthology of underappreciated powerhouse
Pacific Northwest powerhouse Paul Revere & the Raiders seem to have been lost in shadow of Lenny Kaye’s Nuggets and the hundreds of garage-rock compilations that followed in its wake. They aren’t exactly a secret, having recorded for Columbia, scoring fifteen Top 40 singles, garnering a feature spot on Where the Action Is and hosting their own shows, Happening ’68 and It’s Happening. But neither are they afforded the recognition their hits, B-sides, album cuts and live performances really earned. Perhaps it was the genesis of their stardom in Southern California or their major label association that kept them from garage band legend. Maybe it was the themed costumes – particularly the three-corner hats – or that vocalist Mark Lindsay had a soulful finesse which went beyond the typical garage-punk snot. Or maybe it’s that their run into the mid-70s outlasted their roots. Whatever it was, it’s left the Raiders rich catalog remembered only by a few high-charting hits.
The Raiders’ garage and frat-rock credentials were minted on a string of indie singles, and a recording of rock ‘n’ roll’s national anthem, “Louie, Louie,†that was laid down only a few weeks after the Kingsmen’s. The Raiders version bubbled under the Top 100, and along with the Wailers’ earlier version helped root the song in the Pacific Northwest. Picked up by Columbia the single had a good helping of regional success before Columbia A&R honcho Mitch Miller scuttled it. The group’s original follow-up “Louie-Go Home†sounds more like a grungy take on Otis Blackwell’s “Daddy Rolling Stone,†than a riff on Richard Berry’s original, and once again only managed to grazed the bottom of the Billboard chart. These early single, fueled by Lindsay’s fat saxophone tone and covers of R&B tunes “Night Train†and “Have Love, Will Travel,†weren’t as raw as the Sonics, but were still a lot meatier than most of their L.A., Chicago or Northeast counterparts.
“Louie, Louie,†originally released on the Sande label, turned out to be the Raiders ticket to the big time: a deal with Columbia Records. The group continued to crank out R&B covers for the next year, including a fuzz-heavy cover of Gene Thomas’ country-tinged “Sometimes†and a solid take on the Aaron Neville hit “Over You.†The group’s original were initially limited to B-sides, such as the instrumental “Swim,†but in 1965 the Lindsay/Revere composition “Steppin’ Out†began the group’s assault on the charts. Revere’s organ riffs and a confrontational lyric gave this single a tougher garage sound that took them just shy of the Top 40. A short-lived detour into Jan & Dean-styled car songs (“SS396†b/w “Corvair Babyâ€) was followed by a trifecta of the group’s best remembered hits.
First up was “Just Like Me,†with a wickedly insinuating organ riff, a brilliant double guitar solo, and a vocal that rises from barely contained verses to emotionally explosive choruses. Next was Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil’s anti-drug “Kicks,†turned down by the Animals and taken to #4 by the Raiders. Lindsay really sells the song, singing the lyric as both a lecture and a plea, forceful on the verses and understanding in the choruses. The group cracked the Top 10 again with another Mann & Weil tune, “Hungry,†propelled by its hypnotically powerful bass line. The group (with Terry Melcher) subsequently began writing many of their own hits and B-sides, including “Good Thing,†“Him or Me,†and “Ups and Downs,†and Melcher began adding studio musicians to the mix.
As 1967 turned into 1968 the band stretched from their Northwest rock roots into sunshine pop, bubblegum, folk rock, soul and light-psych. Fine sides from this period include the Beatle-esque “Too Much Talk,†the groovy theme songs “Happening ‘68†and “It’s Happening,†and the chewy “Cinderella Sunshine†and “Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon.†The latter two are among the sides Lindsey produced for the band after their separation from Terry Melcher and the arrival of three replacement Raiders with Southern roots. By the end of the 1960s the group’s singles were charting lower, often outside the Top 40, but their quality never dipped, and the advent of stereo releases (with 1969’s “We Gotta All Get Togetherâ€) finally detached their sound from the monophonic thrash of their Northwest roots.
Their success was renewed in 1971 with a cover of John D. Loudermilk’s “Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian),†a song that had been recorded a decade earlier by Marvin Rainwater and with some commercial success by Don Fardon. The Raiders’ version topped the singles charts – their only #1 – and sold a million copies. The renewed success was brief however: a follow-up cover of Joe South’s “Birds of a Feather†just missed the Top 20, and their next four singles charted lower and lower, ending their run with 1973’s barely charting pre-disco “Love Music.†The group’s contract with Columbia ended in 1975, lead singer Mark Lindsay left for a solo career, and though the group soldiered on with sporadic new releases they became more of a fixture on the oldies circuit.
Collectors’ Choice’s 3-CD set offers sixty-six tracks that cover all of the group’s Columbia singles. The B-sides offer some real treats, including the autobiographical “The Legend of Paul Revere,†the Las Vegas grind-styled instrumental “B.F.D.R.F. Blues,†the flower-power “Do Unto Others,†the trippy “Observations from Flight 285 (in 3/4 Time),†the muscular jam “Without You,†the Band-styled country-rock “I Don’t Know,†the Peter & Gordon-ish “Frankford Side Street,†and the organ instrumental “Terry’s Tune.†There are four rarities: the withdrawn “Rain, Sleet, Snow†and its flip “Brotherly Love,†and promo songs for the GTO (“Judge GTO Breakawayâ€) and a Mattel doll (“Song for Swingyâ€). The collection closes with the post-Mark Lindsay “Your Love (is the Only Love),†featuring Bob Wooley on lead vocal. Missing are the group’s pre-Columbia singles, including their boogie-woogie instrumentals “Beatnik Sticks†and “Like, Long Hair,†and their last single “Ain’t Nothin’ Wrong.â€
Elvis recorded live amid the blaze of his 1968-71 revival
After an eight-year layoff from concert performance, Elvis returned to the stage with a pair of runs at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. The first shows, in the summer of 1969, were first captured on Elvis in Person at the International Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, and featured samples of his seminal early hits and then-contemporary smashes. In early 1970 he returned for a second set of shows, documented on On Stage, and changed up the set list to highlight his restyling of others’ hits in his own image. RCA’s new two-disc Legacy Edition combines both albums and ten bonus tracks into a superbly detailed picture of Elvis’ return to the stage and the physical reconnection to his fans.
When originally released, the albums caught Elvis amid his biggest blaze of glory. His televised ’68 Comeback Special had proved him still vital, and the 1969 studio sessions that resulted in From Elvis in Memphis (and its own 2-CD Legacy reissue) had proved him still relevant. The live sets showed Elvis to be both a star of the brightest magnitude and an artist with something to say to contemporary audiences. With both an extensive legacy and new singles, Elvis had to find a way to satisfy crowds that came to hear both his rich back catalog and his hot new hits. In the ’69 shows, featured on disc two of this set, Elvis cherry-picked from his seminal rock ‘n’ roll sides (including blistering versions of “Mystery Train†and “Hound Dogâ€), his early’60s post-army comeback hits, and the contemporary tracks he’d recently laid down with Chips Moman at American Studios.
For his 1970 return to Las Vegas, featured on disc one, Elvis leaned away from the rocked-up performances of 1969 and more heavily on his then-current penchant for covers. Beyond his Top 10 cover of Ray Peterson’s “The Wonder of You,†the selections forsook the golden oldies in favor of recent hits by Engelbert Humperdinck (“Release Meâ€), Neil Diamond (“Sweet Carolineâ€), Tony Joe White (“Polk Salad Annieâ€), the Beatles (“Yesterday,†recorded at the 1969 shows), Creedence Clearwater Revival (“Proud Maryâ€), and Joe South (“Walk a Mile in My Shoesâ€). It’s a mark of Elvis’ force and singularity as a performer that the original singers often disappeared in his wake, and a few of these songs (particularly “Walk a Mile in My Shoesâ€) became as closely associated with the King as with their originators.
Elvis sounds loose, comfortable and artistically commanding on stage, a surprise given his eight-year hiatus from live performance. No doubt his A-list TCB Band (which included James Burton, Jerry Scheff, Glen D. Hardin and the Sweet Inspirations) helped him regain his crown, but the essential flame that sparked in 1954 was clearly still burning within sixteen years later. A hint of his humble uncertainty is shown as he introduces “Kentucky Rain†with “I have out a new record, just came out in the past week or so, I hope you like it,†but his fans never had a doubt. As with his Memphis sessions of 1969, the liberty to engage his musical muse spurred Elvis to great artistic heights. Freed from the musical dross that filled many of his film soundtracks, standing in front of an audience he’d not seen face-to-face in nearly a decade, Elvis dug deep into the music he loved.
Terrific collection of The Runaways four Mercury albums
With the Runaways biopic getting a major market push, it was a no-brainer for their oft-ignored catalog to get a fresh reissue. Contained in this set are the three studio albums the group recorded for Mercury (The Runaways, Queens of Noise and Waitin’ For the Night), and a live album originally released as an import (Live in Japan). This represents the heart and soul of the Runaways’ catalog, and though a post-Mercury album (And Now… The Runaways), an odds ‘n’ sods collection (Flaming Schoolgirls) and prehistoric demos (Born to Be Bad) can be found, they’re the province of completists. For those new to the group’s repertoire this four-LPs-on-two-CDs set will tell you everything you need to know – if not a bit more – about the group’s recorded legacy.
The Runaways’ self-titled 1976 debut tells most of the story: five girls who are both a legitimate rock group and puppets of their Svengali producer, Kim Fowley. The dynamic of teenage hormones, rock ‘n’ roll dreams and jailbait marketing gave the album both muscle and sexual sizzle. Joan Jett proved herself a songwriter with an uncommon touch for evoking mid-70s Los Angeles teendom, and she and Cherie Currie sang with a conviction that couldn’t be faked. The band’s playing could be plodding and clumsy in spots, but it was still surprisingly powerful. The group’s 1977 follow-up, Queens of Noise, followed the same template, but within it you could hear the group was a year wiser to the perils of rock ‘n’ roll. Abused by their managers and worn down by the road, they were staring at the madness that would cause the band to implode.
The group’s live album, recorded before an enthusiastic audience in Japan, shows how well the act translated to the stage. As on their debut, the playing isn’t particularly refined, but Currie shows herself to be a commanding front-woman, and Sandy West holds down the beat with power and authority. The Runaways’ final studio release for Mercury, Waitin’ For the Night, saw the band reconfigured: Cherie Currie and Jackie Fox were gone, and with them went some of the band’s overt sex appeal. The former’s vocal spotlight fell to Joan Jett, the latter’s bass playing to Vicki Blue, and the focus to the band’s music. Jett seized the opportunity to assert herself as group leader, rising to the challenge of writing most and singing all of the album’s tracks. In the album’s wake Jett proved, at least to listeners, if not to the record industry, that she was a star in the making. Lita Ford’s two metal-tinged originals also pointed to post-Runaways commercial success.
Austin’s Hacienda drops their second album Big Red & Barbacoa (produced once again by the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach) on April 6th. As a teaser they’ve released this superb mid-period Beach Boys styled original. A full album review is coming in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime, enjoy this great track!
By 1983 Alice Cooper had fallen back off the wagon and was recording albums that he’d later claim he couldn’t remember. 1981’s Special Forces had brought him back to a stripped-down rock ‘n’ roll sound that recalled his earlier peaks, and 1982’s Zipper Catches Skin retained the same direction while sounding more labored. 1983’s DaDa, his last album for Warner Brothers (and his last album before a three-year hiatus) reunited him with Bob Ezrin, who’d produced Cooper in his glory years. The album opens promisingly with the menacing “Da,†a looming synthesizer instrumental punctured by thumps of percussion and a spooky doll’s voice. The spoken word lyrics sound as if they’re snippets of confessional dialog lifted from a 1940s psychological thriller.
Nearly a decade after the original Alice Cooper band broke through with School’s Out, and five years after the solo Alice Cooper re-emerged with Welcome to My Nightmare and Alice Cooper Goes to Hell some retooling was in order. Cooper’s albums of the late 70s had become bombastic, and his 1980 release Flush the Fashion mistakenly embraced a modern-rock sound that failed him. By 1981 he was ready to recapture his earlier glory. Gone were the new wave synthesizers brought by Roy Thomas Baker and back were guitar, bass and drums to give punch to Cooper’s tough singing. What synths remain were slithering and insinuating, or in the case of those which introduce “Seven and Seven Is,†quickly pushed aside by slashing rhythm guitars. Covering this Love song was a canny tip of the hat to punk-rock’s mid-60s garage-rock roots.
This isn’t a full one-eighty from Flush the Fashion, but in the punk rock movement Cooper had clearly found kindred confrontational spirits. His then-current preoccupation with military and police matters provides the album’s major lyrical strand, though it’s set to the sort of clever wordplay that had made his earlier hits and stage show so alluring. The accoutrements of power and forces – guns, ammo, holsters – are dressed-up in suggestive sexual double-entendres that leave their meaning to the listener’s imagination. Cooper revisits “Generation Landslide†(from 1973’s Billion Dollar Babies) without the finesse of the original, and at times, such as on “Don’t Talk Old to Me,†Cooper sounds like a ranting alcoholic, which was apparently a real-life role into which he was about to lapse. Cooper’s secondary fascination with horror films is highlighted in the ornate “Skeletons in the Closet,†on which trades the raw rock ‘n’ roll for synthesizers and spooky imagery.
Kid-friendly album from the kings of power-pop harmony
Though it’s been five years since the Rubinoos released their last album of new material, Twist Pop Sin, they’ve been busy boys (and girl). Tours of Japan and Spain were accompanied by odds ‘n’ sods collections (One Two That’s It and HodgePodge) and their seminal Beserkley recordings finally received the attention they deserved with the 3-CD Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Rubinoos. They played a pair of headline gigs at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall in 2007 and 2008 that showed their vocal and instrumental chops were as sharp (if not sharper) than ever. Founding members Jon Rubin and Tommy Dunbar are joined by long-time bassist and vocalist Al Chan, keyboardist/vocalist Suzy Davis and drummer David Rokeach.
The Rubinoos’ latest album, ostensibly a kid-friendly all-ages collection, includes several favorites from their live set, a few novelty covers, and newly penned songs that will enchant both small fry and parent-mocking ‘tweens. Best of all the Rubinoos’ great singing and playing won’t bludgeon parents into a musical coma when commanded to “play it again!†Tracking through the album you’ll realize the group didn’t have to change course to craft an album pleasing to kids – something that’s farily obvious when you go back and listen to their 1977 cover of “I Think We’re Alone Now.†Their bright pop harmonies – enhanced by doo-wop vocal arrangements Rubin and Dunbar bring from their work with the Mighty Echoes – are pleasing to ears both young and old.
The album opens, as has their live set recently, with a cover of Alvin & The Chipmunks’ “Witch Doctor,†and their covers of the Marathons’ “Peanut Butter†and Eternals’ “Rockin’ in the Jungle†(the latter complete with funny animal imitations) honor the originals with their vocal finesse. Jon Rubin’s voice retains the sweetness of his early years, and he slings out these songs with every bit of the enthusiasm of a twenty-year-old who can’t believe he gets to do this for a living. Tommy Dunbar’s songs also retain the charms of youth, with “Dumb it Down†mining the Jackson Five groove heard in several earlier Rubinoos tunes, and a new version of “Mothers Always Know†remembering teenage life under a parent’s roof.
Inviting EP sampler of singer-songwriter psych, pop, folk and blues
