"There's a time in life for Hoagy Carmichael. There's a time in life for Claude Debussy. There's a time in life for Jerry Lee Lewis. There's a time in life for Destiny's Child. All these things have their moment." ~Elvis Costello
05 Nov 2012 2 Comments
in Best of the Blog, On a Lighter Note, Songs You May Have Missed Tags: andy breckman, don't get killed
Andy Breckman: “Don’t Get Killed” (1990)
Andy Breckman has been a staff writer for SNL and David Letterman, as well as a comedy film screenwriter and “script doctor”.
He’s also something of a folk singer–one who never felt the need to turn to page two of the chord book. But two chords is all he needs to make you bust a gut here.
05 Nov 2012 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: a.c.t, last epic, silence
Meet Swedish pop-proggers A.C.T, a band who deserves a wider audience. Their name is clearly part of their PR problem; no one except the band knows what A.C.T actually stands for (and they won’t tell). Their lack of recent recorded output is certainly another hindrance–they haven’t been heard from since their excellent 2006 half-concept album Silence. (I say “half-concept album” because A.C.T tends to split the difference between conventional records and concept albums by sequencing the first half of their releases with stand-alone tracks and using second half–what we used to call “side two”–for one long suite of shorter, thematically linked songs.)
Not only has it been a full six years now between releases but it seems impossible to even get news about the band. No recent news, clips, tour dates, interviews–it’s like Biff Tannen went back and erased them from history. Whatever–I have four CDs to prove they not only existed but excelled. Whatever their issues producing album number five; whatever their challenges finding fans on this continent, talent isn’t the problem.
I’ve stitched together, rather tidily if I may say so, a five-minute clip featuring some of their flashier instrumental moments as a little calling card. Though most of their songs do contain vocals, this instrumental mix focuses on the strength of the band’s ensemble playing, not to mention a penchant for an ear-friendly riff. My hope is that it’ll lead a few more people to discover an excellent band–I’d recommend starting with either Silence or Last Epic, which preceeded it. (And if you happen to find out what A.C.T actually means, please let me know.)
Have a listen to what I call the A.C.T Instrumental Megamix:
04 Nov 2012 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: a spoonful of time, nektar, prog archives
![Sounds Like These [LP, DE, Bacillus BDA 7501]](https://i0.wp.com/ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41DpDWU%2BCQL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Tonight I clicked on my favorite progressive rock website, Prog Archives, just to see what was up. Just beneath the site’s banner, which, by the way, is a very cool mural that makes for a great exercise in “name that album art”, is a listing of the top 50 artists of the last 24 hours. Presumably this list is based on the site’s activity. I was mildly stunned to see one of my favorite prog bands, Nektar, listed first.
Nektar, you see, while well-known to old prog heads (and people like me who befriended old prog heads and/or gave ear to their rantings) rate more as a bit of rock esoterica to younger music fans. Like say, Uriah Heep. But without the hits. Anyway, I was excited and a little concerned to see their top-of-the-list status on the site, knowing it likely indicated either a buzz over a new release…or perhaps the death of band leader Roye Albrighton. (Isn’t is so that the old bands usually make headlines only for one or the other of the two?)
Gladly I confirmed it was indeed a new release that was generating Nektar-related searches. A Spoonful of Time is the band’s first-ever covers album, and a very credible one it is. In fact, Prog Archives allows contributors to rate albums on its site, and A Spoonful of Time (which has been out in Europe since September 11) is actually, shockingly, rated higher than even their legendary 1970’s releases. So let’s see what all the fuss is about:
An A-list of prog legends contribute their talents: Geoff Downes (Asia/Yes), Mark Kelly (Marillion), Ian Paice (Deep Purple), Rod Argent (Zombies/Argent), Steve Howe (Asia/Yes), Ginger Baker (Cream), Rick Wakeman (Yes), Bobby Kimball (Toto), David Cross and Mel Collins (King Crimson) and many more.
The ambition of the album matches its list of hired guns. It’s either real ballsy or outright folly to try to cover songs like Rush’s “Spirit of the Radio“, Toto’s “Africa“, Steve Miller’s “Fly Like an Eagle“, Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”, Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home” and the Doors’ “Riders on the Storm“, not to mention Alan Parsons Project’s iconic and ubiquitous instrumental “Sirius“. More audacious still, perhaps, is the decision to mix in pop, folk and R&B classics: 10cc’s “I’m Not in Love”, Neil Young’s “Old Man” and The O’Jays’ “For the Love of Money”. The breadth of this playlist invites disaster of Hindenburg proportions. Unless…
Did I mention the stellar cast of musicians? I did. I should also mention that, although Nektar’s heyday of mass popularity is decades behind them, Roye Albrighton still helms the ship. And, since their return from a generation-long hiatus around 2002 they’ve released a very respectable string of new records that manage somehow both to sound like classic Nektar and yet not sound dated. The guy knows what he’s doing, and seems incapable of releasing a dud album. Surely covering such sacred songs is the test of that. Albrighton and company pass with flying colors.
A Spoonful of Time will be released domestically on November 27th. You can listen to samples here:
By the way, a little Nektar trivia: their 1977 album Magic is a Child (pictured top right) featured a young, unknown model named Brooke Shields on its cover.
Check out Prog Archives (and test your knowledge of iconic prog cover art by seeing how many albums you can name from its banner.)
03 Nov 2012 4 Comments
in Best of the Blog, General Posts Tags: johnny cash, june carter cash, ring of fire
You know “Ring of Fire” as a Johnny Cash song. But as Sarah Vowell explains, Johnny didn’t write it. June did. About Johnny. While she was married to someone else. Then her sister and her mother helped her sing it. It’s a song not about the fire of romance, but about hellfire.
And that’s why country music used to be cool.
03 Nov 2012 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: jeffrey lewis, punk rock
Anti-folk hero and comic book writer Jeffrey Lewis gives his version of punk music’s history, 1950 to 1975, in one eight-minute spew.
02 Nov 2012 Leave a comment
in Best of the Blog, General Posts, On a Lighter Note, Video of the Week Tags: bob dylan, subterranean homesick blues, weird al yankovic
If ever a music video deserved a ‘making of’ featurette, it’s “Bob“, Weird Al Yankovic’s parody of “Subterranean Homesick Blues“, which sends up Dylan’s incomprehensible lyric with nonsensical yet stupefying sentence-length palindromes.
Forget “Thriller“–would you rather see a behind-the-scenes about Michael Jackson putting on a lot of makeup and spending unprecedented amounts of money, or would you prefer to know who came up with palindromes like “Do nine men interpret? Nine men, I nod” and “oozy rat in a sanitary zoo” and how?
