Faves of 2011 (Vol. 3)

Okay, trying this again. I've removed all bands that are affiliated with major labels.At least, I think I have; it's quite hard to find out if an "independent" label is really independent or simply a vile subsidiary of the evil empire. Apparently such an admission is bad for business. I wonder why, huh?

I've Got Permission

1. The Van Buren Boys Turn It Up Loud
2. Meyerman  Permission to Rock You
3. The Adjusters You Gotta Say
4. Butch Walker & the Black Widows Every Single Body Else
5. Locksley Oh, Wisconsin!
6. Everybody Else First Class
7. The Black Rabbits Hypno Switch
8. The Handcuffs Come On Venus
9. The Breakdowns If Only You Knew
10. The Boulevard Beat 8 Track Breakdown
11. Wiretree Dakota
12. Chewy Patriarch Boogie
13. The Dead Trees World Gone Global
14. Phoebe Killdeer & the Short Straws Scholar
15. Mother's Children (Baby You Ain't) Tough Enough
16. The Cute Lepers Tribute To Charlie
17. Spazzys Makin' Trash
18. Bare Wires Television Girls
19. Giuda Number 10
20. Sally Crewe & the Sudden Moves Punk Rock Kid
21. King Louie's Missing Monuments Dance All Nite
22. The Krayolas Gonna Walk Downtown
23. Reigning Sound Can't Hold On
24. Howler You Like White Women I Like Cigarettes

A New Mandate

Well, the fuckers have done it again. That last mix got zapped by the RIAA on behalf of one of the four major labels (Sony, Universal, EMI, and Warner), all of whom don't seem to understand that the means of distribution have changed in the internet era. These dumb cunts are so intent on saving a paltry 99 cents from a download that they can't see the obvious benefit of the free and spontaneous dissemination of a portion of their artist's work. These are the same assholes that wanted to prosecute home-taping in the '80s, even while the sheer amount of music sales boomed due to the very existence of that trend.

I want to support bands, but I absolutely do not want to support these greedy and venal major labels. So here's my new mandate: from here on in, if a band is on a major label I will not buy their product nor will I promote their product on this site. I might go see them live - but, then again, if they're on a major they probably won't be worth seeing anyway.

70s Glam mix

The early 70s saw rock hit its first reactionary movement. A new generation of fans and musicians, weaned on tinny AM radio trash and their older siblings' record collections, came of age with a chip on their shoulder and a desire for something beyond the classic rock cliches that were already fossilized in amber. They looked simultaneously to the past and the future for inspiration. In the past, they found the excitement and simplicity of good ol' 50s rock 'n' roll, and in the future they found an alien androgyny based in apocalyptic sci-fi, and they smushed those two seemingly disparate elements together and created an indefinable beast that ended up getting called glam.

Glam, or glitter, as a term is an admittedly large umbrella spread out over a highly dissimilar bunch of acts. The somewhat foppy UK variant (typified by Bowie, T.Rex, The Sweet, and a parade of one hit wonders) was quite clearly at odds with the darker, messier US strain (which included the Dolls, Iggy, Alice Cooper, and even Lou Reed). What ties them together is their mutual influence and similarity to what was then just lurking around the corner: punk rock. The energy, the distorted guitars, the trash aesthetic, the rediscovered faith in rock and roll, and the rejection of established cliches - those very tenets of punk were the same booster rockets that powered the best of the glam bands.

Don't Blame Us, You 96 Decibel Freaks

1. Mott the Hoople The Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll
2. New York Dolls Personality Crisis
3. Alice Cooper Under My Wheels
4. The Sweet Hellraiser
5. Suzi Quatro Glycerine Queen
6. Be Bop Deluxe Maid in Heaven
7. T. Rex Sunken Rags
8. Slade Gudbuy T' Jane
9. Jobriath Rock of Ages
10. Crushed Butler High School Dropout
11. Hobnail She's Just A Friend Of Mine
12. The Rats Queen
13. Brett Smiley VaVaVa Voom
14. Hollywood Brats Sick On You
15. Iggy and the Stooges Search and Destroy
16. David Bowie Suffragette City
17. Wizzard Ball Park Incident
18. Mud Tiger Feet
19. David Werner Whizz Kid
20. Alastair Riddell Scars of Love
21. Roxy Music Virginia Plain
22. American Jam Band Jam Jam
23. Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel Make Me Smile
24. Sensational Alex Harvey Band Last of the Teenage Idols Pts. I-III

Note: I found it difficult to contain this mix to 80 minutes, so it's the first one on this site that doesn't fit onto a standard CD.

River City Rebels

This is a story of a band doing something that I personally find courageous, which is to stay true to itself even in the face of overwhelming commercial failure. The River City Rebels followed their own muse and ended up at a point they probably could never have predicted when they started the journey.

Looking back from here, it's hard to believe that journey started with an album called Racism, Religion, and War (2000). The lack of subtlety in the title is carried through in the music - it's fairly generic Oi-derived punk with a 3rd wave ska horn section that only slightly raises it above a thousand other bands of this ilk. By their very next album a year later the band was already expanding on that sound, and by their third album, No Good, No Time, No Pride (2002), they'd taken that tack as far as it could go. Many consider this the band's apex - and if your preference is for buzzsaw energy with gang chant choruses you could do far worse than tracking down a copy of this album - but for me this is when the band finally starts to get interesting.

It took two years for them to return with Hate To Be Loved (2004), which represents an enormous turning point. The album was produced by Sylvain Sylvain (of personal faves the New York Dolls), and it's as if he sat the boys down and explained the deep rhythm & blues roots of punk rock to them. It sounds like a lightbulb suddenly flickered to life, because as much as the album maintains the gang chants and punk spirit of past songs, it also possesses a much more varied sonic palette. A song like "Glitter and Gold" could have been played by the Dolls themselves (and the album's version of R&B chestnut "Don't Mess With Cupid" actually was). Beyond that glam rocker there were ballads and straight up rock 'n' roll, a grab bag of genres spilling out amid the more familiar Rebel moves. The band handicapped themselves by equipping the record with puerile cover art, and the fans of their first three albums were probably in an outrage over a perceived sell-out - but Hate To Be Loved was the sound of a band finally recognizing its own path.

Three years later they appeared with Keepsake of Luck, and to say it was a bold departure is something of an understatement. It was a quantum leap forward. Its reach far wider than anyone - maybe even the band themselves - might have anticipated, incorporating a rootsy Springsteen/Van Morrison influence that opened the Rebels to strains of both soul and folk. At the same time, there's a new-found sincerity in Dan O' Day's vocals that evoke the softer side of the Clash, a band with a similar (if grander and more dramatic) growth towards diversity and eclecticism. Despite of - or maybe because of - the wide range of musical influences, this is where the River City Rebels actually forge their own unique sound.  The album is a monster at 16 songs, and while not all of them rise above their derivations enough of them do to make this the band's crowning achievement.

Tragically and predictably, Keepsake of Luck was soundly ignored by almost everybody. By the time of the next album, 2008's In Love/Loveless, the band was down to its two core members, Dan O' Day and Brandon Rainer. Somewhat surprisingly, the River City Rebels continued to push their sound forward. Sonically, there's almost no trace of their punk past here, but instead there are echoes of practically every strain of American music this side of country & western.

O' Day and Rainer reconvened again in 2010 with Done With Love. Perhaps more reflective and introspective than any of their previous efforts, it still sounds far from defeated. Conveniently, perhaps symbolically, this album appeared almost exactly a decade after their first. Those ten years, hard fought and most likely filled with frustration, manifest themselves in the depth of the music, while tracks like "Gone Forever" and "Here Today, Dead Tomorrow" suggest this may be the end of the journey. Let's hope not.

It Ain't So Bad Down Here

1. Religion
2. Gotta Get It
3. Aborted
4. I'm So Vain
5. Dreamy 17
6. Glitter and Gold
7. Nothing Makes You Hard
8. All The Flowers
9. Sick Kids
10. I've Seen
11. Bright Rays
12. It's Still There Now, Dear
13. Josie
14. One Sheet
15. One More Dance

Track 1 from Racism, Religion, and War (2000)
Track 2 from Playing to Live, Living to Play (2001)
Track 3 from No Good, No Time, No Pride (2002)
Tracks 4, 5, 6 from Hate To Be Loved (2004)
Tracks 7 - 11 from Keepsake of Luck (2007)
Tracks 12, 13 from In Love/Loveless (2008)
Tracks 14, 15 from Done With Love (2010)

End of Summer mix

The days are still gloriously hot, but night is already falling sooner. Those patio lanterns are necessary even before you've got all the ribs off the grill. And every so often, if the wind blows just right, you swear you can feel a slight autumn chill lying just under the warm sting of the sun. Yep, it's the dog days of August, and summer's almost over.

So here's a slight change of pace. A decidedly slower pace, in fact. This mix won't get anyone dancing, but it'll aid in the casual sipping of sangria at dusk. It's not exactly sad bastard music - no bearded troubadours with an acoustic guitar whisper-singing about their cosmic pain - this mix is more about the mellow groove. The slow burn. Songs from a variety of sources and eras that tap into a blissed-out form of melancholy, which pretty much matches my mood at this time of year. Maybe yours too. 

Shade and Honey

1. Oh Mercy Lay Everything On Me
2. Robbers on High Street Nasty Numbers
3. Bing Ji Ling Everybody
4. Daniel Tashian When You're Gone
5. Pinback Fortress
6. Ringside (w/ Ben Harper) Lost Days
7. Pernice Brothers Somerville
8. Luke Rathborne Dog Years
9. Vulgar Boatmen You Don't Love Me Yet
10. Largest Living Things Hellbent
11. High Dials What You Call Love Is A Lie
12. Yep The Rain Song 
13. Cat Power Lived In Bars
14. Matt Costa Drive
15. Apex Manor Coming To
16. Warren Zanes Hey Girl
17. Girls Love Like a River
18. Roman Candle Baby's Got It In The Genes
19. The Chevelles Sunshine
20. Penny Blacks Chop Yourself Into Little Pieces And Mail Yourself to New Brunswick, Canada For Immediate Reassembly

We're Getting Loaded - the 2011 Summer Mix

In honor of the thousands of people who braved swimming in each others' pee for the pic above, here's the latest UHM Summer mix.

These mixes tend to skew far and wide, spanning genres and eras (although this one obstinately sticks within the last decade) with little regard for any particular theme beyond the fact that they all sorta sound like summer (to my ears). Subsequently, the wistful melancholy of the Love Language exists side by side with Giuda's modern update on '70s glam stomp, the Sweetback Sisters' boppin' '50s hoedown, Sharon Jones' R&B groove, and the River City Rebels punkaroll drive (produced by Sylvain Sylvain no less!) and all manner of UHM obsessions in between. There's no reggae on this mix - not due to any newfound prejudice against the genre but more because of this summer's absence of carseat-melting heat in my part of the world - but don't let that deter anyone from skankin' in the sun. Oh, and credit where credit's due - I have to thank my awesome girlfriend PDX Chica for introducing the Blue Skies for Black Hearts song to me. Apparently her great taste knows no bounds. Now, wine coolers for all!

We're Getting Loaded

1. The Twisteroos (Let's Go) Where the Action Is
2. River City Rebels Glitter and Gold
3. Blue Skies for Black Hearts Majoring in the Arts
4. Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros Coma Girl
5. Stewboss I Hope You Miss Me
6. The Black Keys Dearest
7. The Star Spangles This Side of the Sun
8. The Breakers Here For a Laugh
9. Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings Better Things To Do
10. The Silver Seas The Country Life
11. The Black Rabbits All Alone Again
12. Big Talk Getaways
13. Albert Hammond Jr. GfC
14. The Ike Reilly Assassination The Boat Song (We're Getting Loaded)
15. The Sweetback Sisters Love Me, Honey, Do
16. The Spazzys The Sunshine Drive
17. Bubble By And By
18. Giuda Get It Over
19. Maxim Ludwig & the Santa Fe Seven Stacy, C'mon
20. David Vandervelde California Breezes
21. Redondo Beat My Baby (Knows How To Have a Real Good Time)
22. The Love Language Summer Dust

Covers Project Vol. VIII

Here we go again. After eight volumes of these covers mixes there isn't much to add, although there is a small handful of surprises. Dan Kelly's stab at "Nothing Compares To You" is particularly noteworthy for its totally original, almost jaunty arrangement that magically improves on the song's dynamic. Also outside the typical Un-Herd box, the 1234 turn "Blitzkrieg Bop" into straight-up a capella doo-wop, which only reinforces the sheer mastery of melody and songcraft behind the flash of genius that was the Ramones. In a similar move, the Baseballs expose the basic rock 'n' roll roots of Lady Gaga on "Paparrazi", and Hillbilly Moon Explosion re-imagine the old synthpop chestnut "Enola Gay" as a jumpin' rockabilly ditty. And that's it for curveballs - the rest stays pretty firmly in the indie/punk/power pop wheelhouse of this blog, which is to say it's all good.

 You're Gonna Hear Electric Music 

1. Dan Kelly Nothing Compares To You (Prince, by way of Sinead O'Connor) 

2. The Ex-Gentlemen Untouchables (Generation X) 

3. Kurt Baker Hanging On The Telephone (Jack Lee, by way of Blondie) 

4. Smash Fashion Benny And The Jets (Elton John) 

5. REM Baby Baby (The Vibrators) 

6. The Feelies Barstool Blues (Neil Young) 

7. The Blue Shadows Raised On Robbery (Joni Mitchell) 

8. The Yum Yums Blame It On Suzie (Backstreet Girls) 

9. Cobra Verde Teenage Kicks (The Undertones) 

10. The Hoodoo Gurus A Hard Day's Night (The Beatles) 

11. Army Navy Right Back Where We Started From (Maxine Nightingale) 

12. The 1234 Blitzkrieg Bop (The Ramones) 

13. Green River Ordinance Go Your Own Way (Fleetwood Mac) 

14. Chixdiggit She's So Modern (Boomtown Rats) 

15. Baby Lemonade How Deep Is Your Love (The BeeGees) 

16. Jeff Dahl The Moon Upstairs (Mott the Hoople) 

17. Everclear Southern Girls (Cheap Trick) 

18. The Donnas Drive My Car (The Beatles) 

19. Hillbilly Moon Explosion Enola Gay (Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark) 

20. The Baseballs Paparazzi (Lady Gaga) 

21. The Gladhands Play On (The Raspberries) 

22. The Drive-By Truckers Strutter (Kiss)