Philadelphia’s Wanderlust made one album in 1995 that deserved a better fate, as did the band, who were dropped by RCA Records while recording a follow-up.
I won’t get carried away with the “lost masterpiece” talk of some, but if you’re a fan of 90’s rock I would suggest you give this one a try. “I Walked” (their single) and “Wanna Feel New” (see link below) should be enough to give you an impression of this forgotten band’s talent. Used copies of the out-of-print Prize CD can be found online for under a buck.
The most instrumentally spartan cut on Derek Webb’s Ringing Bell album is also its most searingly direct. The song is an indictment of many, including the singer himself, but it’s also a restating of Christ’s words about His father’s kingdom, and the divine justice that will set all things right. Thought-provoking. Chilling, even.
I don’t know the suffering of people outside my front door/I join the oppressors of those I choose to ignore
I’m trading comfort for human life/And that’s not just murder it’s suicide/And this too shall be made right
The last album Richard and Linda Thompson made together has been called “absolutely perfect” and “a harrowing masterpiece” by critics, but it’s no lighthearted affair. Chronicling their crumbling marriage, the record is full of metaphors and double-entendres for the painful dissolution of a relationship such as “Did She Jump of Was She Pushed”, “Walking On a Wire” and “Don’t Renege On Our Love”. The tension is the grooves real; the tour in support of the record, which Linda insisted on fulfilling despite Richard’s involvement in a new relationship, was full of onstage malice and kicked shins.
But the album ends with a note of affirmation: “Wall of Death” uses carnival ride metaphors to suggest that life is, after all, better for having taken the risks:
You’re going nowhere when you ride on the carousel/And maybe you’re strong, but what’s the use of ringing a bell?
You can waste your time on the other rides/But this is the nearest to being alive/Let me take my chances on the Wall of Death
Ironically the Shoot Out the Lights album was a breakthrough of sorts in America for the soon-to-divorce British couple. Rolling Stone ranked it #9 on a 1989 list of The 100 Best Albums of the Eighties. The Village Voice ranked it as the #2 album of 1982.
John Lennon has a permanent chill-out session on a park bench in Havana, Cuba, The Park in Vedado district is called Parque John Lennon, and it was Fidel Castro himself who in 2000 unveiled the life-size bronze statue of the Beatle. Unfortunately, John’s glasses were stolen immediately afterwards, and then stolen again, and so the Cuban government had to find a Spetacles Man who lurks behind the trees and the bushes with John’s glasses in his pocket, and every time someone comes to meet John Lennon the Spectacles Man pops out and puts those famous Lennon glasses on the nose. – Walter de Camp
One of the more successful of Todd Rundgren’s adventurous studio experiments, “Tiny Demons” was included, along with “Time Heals”, on a 7″ single that came along with his 1981 Healing LP, much like Stevie Wonder included a bonus EP in his Songs in the Key of Life album.
Rundgren could be a confounding artist to follow: his singles were as “pop” as anyone’s, but were seldom representative of the albums from which they came. Therefore the masses tended to becomes fans of his hits without necessarily becoming fans of the artist. Conversely, his dedication to exploration of a wide variety of styles and ideas earned him a loyal cult following. All of his 70’s and early 80’s work is worth exploring, and treasures like this are to be found throughout.
Last year, an unknown band called Rhye started posting exquisitely produced videos online. The clips were sexy — erotic even — and the music matched the images. The identities of the band members were a mystery, intentionally shielded from view.
Listeners started wondering: Who is that woman singing? Why don’t they show her? Once information starting leaking about the band, admirers were shocked to learn: That’s a dude!
“Personally, I don’t view myself as sounding like a woman,” says Toronto-born Mike Milosh, the voice behind Rhye’s sensual songs and one-half of what has now been revealed as an all-male duo. “I think I just have a soft quality to my voice, and then people immediately associate that with something extremely feminine.”
Rhye will release its debut album, Woman, this week. But even as Milosh and his collaborator, Danish songwriter-producer Robin Hannibal, have begun to surface in the media, they have remained visually enigmatic. Consenting to a photo shoot for a New York Times profile last month, the duo requested that their faces be obscured.
“I can’t say it’s not intentional because we made a conscious decision to stay out of things,” Milosh says. “But it wasn’t a PR scheme. It’s not something that we created out of gimmickry, or whatever. We just didn’t want to be in the imagery of it because we wanted people to have their own experience with the songs. Robin and I talked about it at great length. That’s how we both love exploring music, especially when we were younger. You hear something, you’re intrigued by it — but because of the song, not because of the image around the song.”
Milosh and Hannibal spoke with guest host Celeste Headlee on Saturday’s All Things Considered. To hear more of their conversation, click the audio link below.
Every Moment Has A Song 