Outsight
THIS DISASTER IS A SUCCESS
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Outsight brings to light non-mainstream music, film, books, art, ideas and opinions.
Published, somewhere, monthly since July 1991. Feel free to re-print this article.
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THIS DISASTER IS A SUCCESS
Duane Peters is a skateboarder boasting serious street punk cred. In 1994, together with guitarist Kerry Martinez, he recruited other Orange County punk band refugees to form U.S. Bombs and keep classic, noisy punk alive in a feisty, unruly spirit unhampered by corporate commodification. Later, in 2000, he formed The Hunns for a more guitar-based punk sound, and keeps both groups active. Finding other like-minded souls in America, Duane founded Disaster Records to help promote these groups. A trinity of new releases on that label touches on all these points of the Duane Peters career. The U.S. Bombs' Lost in America/Live 2001 documents the group's Back at the Laundromat tour with raw, visceral recordings that could be soundboard bootlegs of early '80's hardcore. There is something faintly English about Duane's delivery, as if it could be emanating from a rowdy pub. The cleaner, more guitar-based sound of Duane Peters and the Hunns on Wayward Bantams gives this album as much an Oi sound as West Coast punk. However, Disaster Records is more than the Duane Peters experience. Peters shares the stage with excellent new acts like recent finds The Sign Offs. Check out their self-titled debut. This Cleveland punk group of buzz saw guitars and explosive energy could be G.B.H. fused with those Cleveland greats The Dead Boys.
Listen to or Buy Live 2001 at CDNow
Listen to or Buy Wayward Bantams at CDNow
Listen to or Buy The Sign Offs at CDNow
FOLK BLUES
Universal Music Company, the world's largest music conglomerate, continues to reissue classic recordings from its bottomless vaults as outlined at http://www.universalchronicles.com/. The MCA-Chess segment of this concern now puts out the classic blues album series the Real Folk Blues and More Real Folk Blues combined onto four individual CDs separately representing some of the best recordings made by Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson and Howlin' Wolf. These records originally came out during the folk blues popularization period of the '60's: The Real Folk Blues was issued in 1966 and More Real Folk Blues in 1967. (The Hooker More Real Folk Blues album was not discovered and released until 1991.) Each pair of albums for each artist are now digitally remastered but conveniently combined onto one CD, with original artwork and liner notes plus a new historical essay. The four MCA/Chess/UME albums are the latest additions to Blues Classics Remastered & Revisited, a major UME series of the most significant and popular blues albums in history.
Howlin' Wolf's Real Folk Blues marks him as the original bad boy of this blues resurgence period with such rugged anthems as "Killing Floor," "Tail Dragger" and "I'm The Wolf." The sound of this giant man and his big-sounding Hohner harmonica still reverberates today. The veteran bluesman provides songs from as far back as 1956 ("The Natchez Burnin'") to latter material like 1965's "Sittin' On Top Of The World" here. The flashback is the focus on More Real Folk Blues moving chronologically from 1953 Memphis recordings made before Wolf's move to Chicago, to 1956 tracks from 1955 for an overview rarities collection from the 300-pound blues master.
Muddy Waters' Real Folk Blues similarly looks back on the career of a man that was a legendary blues performer by that time. This time we skip all the way back the '40's, for example "Canary Woman" (1947), on up to some of his more current releases, like "The Same Thing" (1964). This is a diptych picture of Waters' career up to then; half the recordings come from 1947-1950 and the rest from 1955 ("Mannish Boy") to 1964. This gives us a portrait of the man as rural blues troubadour and later urban blues innovator. As with Howlin' Wolf's album, More Real Folk Blues looks at the nascent beginnings of Waters' career. We hear material from 1948-1952 plotting the ascendancy of Muddy Waters from a slide guitarist with bass accompaniment on the 1948 tracks, to the fuller band sound of the early fifties that Muddy used later that finally became a rock trio combo create the urban blues genre
Sonny Boy Williamson, acknowledged harmonica king, reigns supreme though his Real Folk Blues album. Praised by Willie Dixon as "one of the most amazing persons I have ever known," the seminal harp master inspired everyone from Junior Wells to James Cotton. Williamson was the only member of this Mount Rushmore of blues artists already deceased when these recordings were issued. 10 of the 12 tracks on Real Folk Blues are from 1960-1963 and represent the culmination of the artist's career: melodic, emotional, song-oriented rootsy blues. Though Williamson had been recording for Chess since 1955, More Real Folk Blues again targets the last few years, 1960-1964, featuring guitarist Buddy Guy on Dixon's "Close To Me" as well as "Decoration Day," "Trying To Get Back On My Feet" and more.
The signature "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" and such memorable offerings as "Let's go out Tonight" mark John Lee Hooker's Real Folk Blues collection. Already owning a thoroughly incorporated formula for the blues by this time, Hooker laid down all of the 18 tracks on both albums in one productive 1965 session. His idiosyncratic rhythms, as on the free-form versification in "Let's Go Out Tonight" and the simple, primal rhythms echoing from his boot-stomp days make these albums a cohesive document when packaged together and a still vital, thumping, visceral collection of tough-boogie blues.
MORE MELVINS
Listening through any Melvins recording released this year without the context of their prior discography and you'll see an excellent example of evil post-grunge art-rock. But, the fact that The Melvins largely inspired the entire Seattle grunge scene through such pale imitators as Nirvana goes to show how ahead of the curve they are. Ipecac Recordings got these challenging creators together with the label's other first band, label co-founder Mike Patton's Fantômas. (This group also features King Buzzo of Melvins on guitar.) Released in time to celebrate Ipecac's third anniversary, Millennium Monsterworks by The Fantômas Melvins Big Band is an out-sized aural assault of noise and post-rock recorded live on New Years Eve 2000 by this rare assembly or angry rock deconstructionists.
Meanwhile, Melvins soldier on and the 18th release is Hostile Ambient Takeover (Ipecac Recordings). There's nothing ambient here, but there's a lot that's hostile. The sound is great on this recording made at Hook Studios. Interestingly, Hook Studios is known for their impressive array of vintage microphones and successful use of them. It's a point to wonder about; did such antique equipment contribute to the success of this recording, where not a single nuance of Melvins-orchestrated cacophony is lost? The Melvins' sublime sludge and portentous post-Black Sabbath hard rock fused with a smatter of electronic effects is the foundation for the group's trademark Seattle sound-inspiring vocals on this sampling from the Pacific Northwest's seminal heroes of the harsh art.
DVD Reviews *********************
The Beatles
Big Beat Box
MVD
This is a DVD and CD set. The DVD and CD contain a baker's dozen of songs by and covered by The Beatles. The Overtures and other musicians perform this music, not The Beatles. Included in this music are vocal and instrumental versions of "In Spite of all Danger." This is the title of a supposedly lost John Lennon track here re-created by the musicians. While The Beatles are not heard directly in the music, their voices do come across in press conference interviews presented in the 50-minute DVD. These segments and other vignettes are (somewhat distractingly) colored in hues of red, green, orange, etc. As the music plays they flash like a slide show portraying the chronological tale of The Beatles's sudden and growing popularity. Their entrance and early appearances in the U.S. are well known, but this collection includes less-seen footage from continental Europe, Australia and more. (3)
More on this video title from CDNow
Ian McLagan & The Bump Band
In Concert
Inakustik/MVD
Ian McLagan, with a history in The Small Faces and Faces and as a important sideman for three decades, still can perform fun and upbeat Britpop as he does on this DVD of a German TV concert. Singing and jumping from behind his organ and electric piano on this hour-long video, McLagan is the sparking point for the audience. (This is especially true since his sidemen, mostly much younger, seem less enthused.) The instrumental "Can't Stand Still," worthy of Booker T and The MGs, the sentimental "Hello Old Friend," a new composition during this 2000 recording, are standouts. Also memorable during the strong set (only "Big Love" is corny), is the rowdy break-up song "She Stole It" and fun and mysterious "Don't Let Him out of Your Sight." These are both energetic McLagan originals in a set drawn mostly from Best of British and Turn Faces. (3.5)
More on this video title from CDNow
Johnny Winter
Pieces & Bits
Inakustik/MVD
The is an overview of Johnny Winter's four-decade career made personal by personal photos take by his wife and Winter's own verbal recollections. (These sometimes are distractingly juxtaposed with paragraphs of unrelated on-screen text.) There are several other luminaries performing with Winter. Among them: B.B. King, who recalls their first meeting, Dr. John, Muddy Waters, a frantic Edgar Winter and more. The first of several vintage video clips is both blurry looking and muddy sounding, but the rest of the vault films are amazingly crisp and crystalline sounding. Songs include "Rock & Roll Hoochie Koo," "Mannish Boy," and performed with the Bob Dylan Celebration Band "Highway 61 Revisited." (4)
More on this video title from CDNow
Various Artists
A Scottish Christmas featuring Bonnie Rideout
Maggie's Music
mail@maggiesmusic.com
In A Scottish Christmas, veteran Celtic players form in varying arrangements for a festive yuletide celebration and generally uplifting music. Augmenting this already impressive cast is traditionally-clad Highland dancers and members of The City of Washington Pipe Band. Charming and talented Scottish fiddle champion Bonnie Rideout is prevalent through this live concert recording, acting as musical director and M.C. She provides a full audio commentary track on the DVD that also includes discographies and biographies for her and the other talented contributors. Each of these master musicians takes his or her turn in the spotlight: singer/guitarist Tony Cuffe, Uilliann pipe played by Jerry O'Sullivan and the woman behind Maggie's Music: Maggie Sansone on the hammered dulcimer. The warm, acoustic sounds, presented with love and skill, are not so overtly a Christmastime soundtrack that the DVD cannot be enjoyed year-round as a touchstone of traditional Scottish music making. (4.5)
More on this video title from CDNow
CD REVIEWS *******
Maggie's Music Artists
Carolan's Gift: A Tribute to the Legendary Irish Bard
Maggie's Music
mail@maggiesmusic.com
Late Renaissance Irish harp styles were characterized by crisp, bright melodies that sparkled in the courts of kings and Celtic chieftains. King of the harp-playing Celts was the virtuoso Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738). He created over 200 compositions mating Gaelic folk styles with the then-new styles originated by Vivaldi, Corelli, etc. Maggie's Music brings its own masters of Celtic chamber styles, for instance Al Petteway, Maggie Sansone and Ceoltori, to play fourteen of 'Carolan's gifts' in chamber arrangements of Celtic harp, Irish flute, fiddle, hammered dulcimer, viola da gamba, guitar and piano. These antique baroque instrumentals are delicate and enchanting pieces. (4.5)
The Aqua Velvets
Radio Waves
Mighty/Milan Entertainment
This is a 2-CD set of radio broadcast recordings by the slippery, slightly surf-sounding instrumental combo. That is actually a bit misleading, because CD 2 is actually a 4-track EP but does include a reverb-y treatment of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" recorded by surf archivist Steve Brown. Consider it a bonus CD EP. Recorded at various Bay Area college radio stations, this disc has the fun and loose delivery of a live show but with studio production and no distracting audience noise. Their psychedelic surf sound is a time machine back to the early years and the group can easily place their covers of "Walk Don't Run" or "Pipeline" (here in medley with "Auld Lang Syne") along with such signature originals as "Spanish Blue." Rhino chose that song to represent the contemporary surf sound on a compilation it produced for Hard Rock Café. So many signature tunes and great covers, this is a veritable live greatest hits from the group. (4)CDNOW MUSIC (replace item ID):
Otis Taylor
Respect the Dead
Northern Blues
info@northernblues.com
Otis Taylor began playing blues in London in the '60's and brings much experience about dramatic and compelling approaches to the genre in this recording. Rather like the understated rural blues of John Lee Hooker, Taylor exhibits an understated, even sparse sound that is at times spooky, ominous. Writing for this disc began even before the critically acclaimed White African was released in 2001. The result is a cohesive vision of gloom-soul blues informed in the history of racial prejudice and the more intimate scales of personal grief. (4.5)
Jonathan Richman
The Best of Jonathan Richman
Rounder
info@rounder.com
Jonathan Richman exudes joy and a free, easy happiness in his music. He often effectively personalizes his delivery by opening up interior monologues, or even whole interior conversations as in the biographical "Monologue About Bermuda." This touches on the psychological transition from the Modern Lovers to his solo career. Richman celebrates in his music; "Everyday Clothes," gothic girls and dancing freely in a Lesbian bar are all origin points for cheerful, idiosyncratic songs on this collection, a worthy edition in Rounder's thirty-album Heritage series, marking true highlights in the Rounder catalog. It may be more difficult to swallow his cartoonish renditions of "Action Packed" or "The Heart of Saturday Night," but listen to his "Parties in the U.S.A." done to the tune of "Hang on Sloopy" and you will know Jonathan Richman is a pocket reduction of that party-inducing frat sound. (4.5)
Joshua Gabriel
Movement No. II: R for the NM
372 Music
Sampling his own percussion and bass rhythms on this EP, Gabriel conceived this recording as a cohesive opus with returning leitmotif and interwoven themes. Breakbeats and blunt, simple rhythm lines are the intoxicating foundation of an audio collage of looped voices and disembodied lullabies. This expansive multi-instrumental turntablist references trip-hop, and samples sitars on this music mosaic just as byzantine and obsessive as the detailed, hieroglyphic artwork he festooned the recording with. However, this is not a 'not-for-the-faint-of-heart-recording.' It is instantly accessible to the open mind, the only thing bracing here is the title. (4)
Teenage Fanclub
Howdy
Thirsty Ear
Pure-spun joy, the indie pop confection on Howdy is the essence of Teenage Fanclub: flawless execution, dulcet pop hooks and sweet melody with hum-along lyrics. The bright, uplifting vocals ride along effortlessly on equally scintillating guitar lines. This Scottish group cleanly exudes a direct and apparently effortless pop sensibility. Drinking from the same fountain as Big Star and The Byrds, Howdy welcomes with transcendent good humor unflagging in energy and appeal. (4)
Pan-American
The River Made no Sound
Kranky, POB 578746, Chicago, IL 60657
The title suggests a river at night and that is the lonely, detached tranquility conjured by the ambient electronica displayed on this, Mark Nelson's sparsest atmospheric music. Mark Nelson is also a guitarist for Labradford but puts that instrument aside for a hyper-minimalist dub sound here. Just the bare essentials for an audio chill-out are all this Pan-American needs on his palette to create the canvas that can serve as a backdrop to dreams. (4)
World of Tomorrow
III
World of Tomorrow, 45 First Ave., #5-0, NYC, NY 10003
info@wooweb.com
World Of Tomorrow deals in group jazz improvisation by all members on drums, bass, trombone, sax, trumpet and a few more surprises. The group tends to present a gently cascading array of shifting rhythms and themes rather than any one member charging forward with a melody for the others to follow or expand on. This gives a somewhat exotic feel to the music, suggesting distance and expanse, like desert nights. This is a live album from the group performing their extemporaneous compositions. These tracks became over modulated at times during the recording, but the point gets across that this a decent, shape shifting psychedelic space-jazz band. (2.5)
Billy Music
Midwest Index
Low of Inertia Productions
info@lawofinertia.com
billytheband@aol.com
This Sioux Falls, SD band performs emotional, song-oriented indie rock with carefully enunciated lyrics closely following the rhythm. The melodic rockers are akin to Sunny Day Real Estate and Jimmy Eat World. Their brand of emo juxtaposes the careful, precise phrasing with crunching guitar rhythms and brittle leads that give an edgy feel to the album. (2.5)
Chuck Leavell
Forever Blue: Solo Piano
Evergreen Records, 665 Charlane Dr., Dry Branch, GA 31020
Throughout the '70's piano was an anchor instrument in combos performing popular rock. Quite often, Chuck Leavell was there, in the Allman Brothers Band, Eric Clapton, Rolling Stones and more. Bands of this stripe were often rooted in the blues and grew out of blues cover outfits. This is Leavell's solo blues instrumental piano album and is a testament to his talent and the rootsy sounds that run through the veins of time-tested rock and pop. (4.5)
Gas Huffer
The Rest of Us
Estrus Records
This is the sixth album from veteran garage-a-billy rockers Gas Huffer and their first full-length on Estrus. There are deep roots in this Gas Huffer punk rock. If Neil Young blended with The Cramps, or Bill Kirchen merged with Reverend Horton Heat, this could be very well the result of that mixture. Their hard country sounds are delivered with a fun spirit and a heavy, melodic post-grunge sound. Guitarist Tom Price's work in the U-Men presaged the grunge movement and now Gas Huffer takes that sound forward while still looking back to the backwoods roots of rock and boiling it all down in a garage. File next to Mudhoney! (4)
Soledad Brothers
Steal Your Soul and Dare your Spirit to Move
Estrus Records
Soledad Brothers come from Toledo and that's long been a cultural suburb of Detroit. Soledad Brothers wholeheartedly accept that, sending specific props to the Motor City on two tracks here. Like much that came out of Detroit in the 60's, like the MC5 and Psychedelic Stooges, Soledad Brothers artfully blend heavy blues and burly hard rock. Horns and electric piano give the music real life and style on this mighty and muscular album of alt-blues rock. (4)
Star Room Boys
This World Just Won't Leave You Alone
Slewfoot Records, POB 390, Crane, MO 65633
Star Room Boys is the masterful and moving vehicle for the melancholy songs of lead singer Dave Marr. His achey-breaky heart material is convincing and moving, a confessional authenticity that remains after repeated listening. The group has a history with Dave Barbe of Sugar. Barbe produced the group's debut and likewise this sophomore release, where he also plays piano on some tracks. Born of the fertile Athens, Georgia scene, this one has some of the saddest ballads to ever flow out of a truckstop jukebox. The downbeat melodies are excellently delivered in arrangements of acoustic and electric guitars along with pedal steel and more. (4)
Doc Watson with Frosty Morn
'Round the Table Again
Sugar Hill
The death of Merle Watson in 1985 effectively brought an end to Frosty Morn, but the rest of the group still gets together annually for a nostalgic MerleFest. This album was recorded live at such a reunion at Wilkes Community College. As it was not long before Doc Watson got involved in his son's outfit back when Merle led it, Doc came around to join in with Frosty Morn for this 2001 gathering that also featured Merle's son Richard Watson on guitar. Beside such signature Watson tunes as "Lynchburg Town" and "Blues Walkin' 'Round my Bed," these mountain music masters also have fun with such rural blues staples as "Sugar Babe," "C C Rider" and "On a Monday." (5)
The Church
After Everything Now This
Thirsty Ear/Cooking Vinyl
Long since past their beginnings in superficial jangle-pop, The Church is now a well-honed machine for producing shimmering, sophisticated pop. The always elliptical lyrics more prominently mention religious themes on this more reflective and searching album. These masters of moody mystery never fail to succeed in delivering true emotional affect with each song, despite the rich wordplay that allows purely cerebral appreciation. Their classicism is refined perfectly here on an album of all new material that came out of compositions gathered from work done during the recording of Box of Birds. Tested and reworked before audiences during that tour, the mature band got into the studio and captured this matured music for After Everything Now This, an album of substantial depth. (4.5)
So Kalmery
Bendera
Tinder Records
info@tinderrecords.com
The multi-lingual guitarist and vocalist So Kalmery present ebullient and joyous music on the infectious Bendera. Kalmery weaves strains of gospel, soukous, rumba and more through his music. Kalmery runs the gamut from Taj Mahal's blues-folk sound to international reggae sounds for a wide spectrum of afro-pop in a single album. His contemporary African music also contains a positive, spiritual message of faith and unity that he traces back to the brakka tradition of ancient Egypt. (4)
The Venus Fly Trap
Anthology of the Food
SPV Poland/Spiral Archive
Anthology of the Food is a collection of works by the group from the years 1989-1999. The Gothic music of The Venus Fly Trap is here sampled from Mars, Totem, Pandora's Box, Luna Tide and Dark Amour. Haunting and gloomy, their ominous beat music is midway between Bauhaus and Wall of Voodoo. Containing not only album tracks, this compilation features 12" versions, three non-album tracks and the previously unreleased "13 O'Clock." Arranged chronologically, the album traces the arc of the band from its Gothic roots to its still guitar-based underground dance music on "13 O'Clock." (3)
Outsight is non-mainstream music news and views. The content is wholly based on new releases and a focus on the the eclectic and overlooked.
