The Basement Rug

One of my “back-burner” projects has been doing an LP restoration of Alan Stivell’s incredible Renaissance of the Celtic Harp.

I have two copies of this LP, and while both are in VG+ condition, each has one or two tracks with some surface noise that needed to be removed. For acousitc music, this can be a delicate and time-consuming process - hence the reason for it being on the back burner.

In the midst of some other projects I have been sorting through stacks of LP’s and CD’s kicking around my office and I discovered that I have the 1987 Rounder CD re-issue of this 1972 LP. The artwork is different, and as the Rounder release does not note the original release date, I never made the connection. Silly ol’ me! I have several Stivell LP’s, but am not very familiar with the titles. Several of them are in French.

The Rounder re-issue is out-of-print, but you can download it here.

When I first heard about Working for a Nuclear Free City, I thought to myself, “Yeah! What a bold and inspiring name.” Then I read from their own record label that I should NOT “mistake them for a pack of hippies.” So WTF then, you just chose the name to piss off people who might actually be Working for a Nuclear Free City then? If that’s the case, sod-off mates!

Supposedly this band from Manchester is something to “watch for” in 2008. The article below is full of the usual hype, but hey, I like the “Rocket” song. It’s interesting enough to keep me from yawning and changing the radio station.

Their self-titled debut album was released in the UK on the Melodic label in 2006. This, plus some “rarities and previously unreleased numbers”, and two tracks from their new “Rocket” EP have been re-packaged for their debut American release: “Businessmen & Ghosts”, out now on the “Deaf, Dumb and Blind” label. How can you have “rarities” when you have only one full album under your belt?

The hype below is from Deaf, Dumb and Blind:

Though the band’s name might suggest otherwise, the members of Manchester rock outfit Working For A Nuclear Free City are not “a bunch of tree hugging hippies.” According to guitarist Gary McLure, the band plucked the name from a British street sign they loved for its “subtle ironies and suggestion of secret bunkers hidden just underground.”

The band’s quirky, mysterious name is a fitting match for their music; WFANFC creates lush soundscapes that are melodic and gripping without being easily sorted into any one genre. The band culls from electronic, dance, and shoegazer influences (as far reaching as Berlin-trilogy era Bowie and David Axelrod) in an earnest effort to bring something new to the table. “We want to create an alternative to the current retrospective trend in music,” says singer and producer Dekko (a.k.a Phil Kay). “We just want to keep moving into uncharted territory.”

This is not to say that WFANFC does not have a distinctive sound – they simply do not sound like anyone else. Beginning as the studio project of brothers Phil and John Kay and school friend Gary McLure in 2001, the group made only slow-burning instrumental tracks until they added bassist Ed McLure to the mix, who introduced dance beats and vocals to the tracks. “Sometimes a song doesn’t need words,” says Phil, “But we always intended to have vocals on these tracks.”

What resulted is an eclectic mix of orchestral, adrenaline-fueled dance tracks juxtaposed with quiet, bedroom pop songs and eerie, sparse, acoustic cuts. In the hands of another band, this eclectic mix of tempos and moods could feel cluttered; on WFANFCs debut, the songs both compliment and challenge each other. “Troubled Son” pairs a booming bass line with clanging industrial effects, “England” channels rainy day psychedelia, and “So” starts off as a finger-picked folk track and ends in a booming chorus that would shake any dance crowd.

The band is no stranger to the live club scene, having made their mark on UK nightlife by crafting provocative remixes–The Rakes, Polytechnic, Shitdisco, Archie Bronson Outfit, The Whip and Starsailor have all called on WFANFC for an aural facelift, drawn to the band’s unexpected treatments of old songs. “I never listen to the original track if I can help it,” says Phil. “I’ll take the coughs of the vocalist before he did his take and turn them into a beat, or take the string noise from the guitar and make them into a new instrument.”

What is truly exciting about WFANFC’s world is that there are no constraints; their new debut US release Businessmen & Ghosts, on Deaf Dumb + Blind Recordings, draws from loose grooves, neat Krautrock touches, and even spoken word, and still feels like the work of a cohesive and musically-tight group. Featuring all the tracks from their self titled UK debut album and subsequent Rocket EP on Melodic, plus a number of rare and unreleased tracks, Businessmen & Ghosts is a groundbreaking collection from an important band on the verge of breakout success.

For a band that is just now making its United States debut, WFANFC could not be in a better position; they push boundaries, cross genres, and still sound only like themselves. Just don’t mistake them for a pack of hippies.

Influences listed at their MySpace page:

The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, The Beach Boys, Spiritualized, Morrissey, Can, Faust, Ash Ra Tempel, Neu!, Fourtet, Caribou, Bob Dylan, Sun Ra, The Orb, Nick Drake, Gong, Faust, Brian Eno, Amon Düül, Kraftwerk, Klaus Schulze, The Beta Band, The Beatles, William S. Burroughs, DJ Shadow, UNKLE, The Sabres of Paradise, The Verve, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, The Charlatans, The Chemical Brothers, Howie B, Laika, Björk, Slowdive, Ride, Sigur Ros, Lush, Hüsker Dü, Mercury Rev, Dinosaur Jr., The Flaming Lips, Breeders, Neil Young, Neutral Milk Hotel, Broadcast, Broken Social Scene, Burning Spear, Caetano Veloso, Charles Mingus, Cocteau Twins, King Crimson, Led Zep, Love, Magazine, Manic Street Preachers, Mars Volta, Miles Davis, Minutemen, MColtrane, Amon Tobin, Animal Collective, Apparat, Beastie Boys, Beck, Bill Evens, Bjork, Curtis Mayfield, Curved Air, Dan Deacon, MF Doom, Dears, Deerhoof, Dennis Bovell, Tears for Fears, The Earlies, The Bees, The Kinks, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Wrens, The Thermans, Devo, DFA, Dungen, Dylan, Echo and the Bunny men, EL-P,Field Music, Fog, Freddie Hubbard, Gil Scott Heron, Group Home, Gun Club, Hawkwind, Husker Du, Ian Drury, Yello Magic , Apparat, Beastie Boys, Beck, Bill Evens, Bjork, Jon Spencer, Booker T, B Brian Peter St John Le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, Eric Dolphy, Bowie, Modern Lovers, Monks, Mum, Nas,New York Dolls, Of Montreal, Os Mutantes, Pastels, Donovan, Pavement, Penguin Cafe, PIL, Queens Of The Stone Age, Royksopp, Orchestra, 13th Floor Elevators, 808 State, Add n to x, Adrian Sherwood, Alice Coltrane, Amon Tobin, Animal Collective, Sigor Ros, Stereolab, Steve Reich, Stranglers, Sufjan Stevens, Talking Heads, , The Sonics, Tim Hecker, TV on the Radio, Van Dyke Parks, Wilco, Violent Femmes, Wire, Yo La Tengo Catherine Wheel, The Farm, Andrew Weatherall, Casino Versus Japan, Bola, Gescom, Air, Mouse on Mars, DJ Shadow, Nightmares on Wax, Jega, Add N to (X), Funkstörung, Luke Vibert, Plaid, Freeform, Jaga Jazzist, Funki Porcini, Fila Brazillia, Coldcut, Broadway Project, Quantic Soul Orchestra, Yes, The Who, King Crimson, The Soft Machine, The Move, The Alan Parsons Project, Hawkwind, ELO, EL-P, Tangerine Dream, Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, The Smashing Pumpkins, Mansun, Radiohead, Elbow, John Lyndon, Einstürzende Neubauten, Captain Beefheart, Pink Floyd, The Velvet Underground, Syd Barrett, Frank Zappa, The Beatles, The Smiths, The Rolling Stones, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Funkadelic, Parliament, MC5, Television, Blur, The Byrds, David Axelrod, Broadcast, M83, My Bloody Valentine, Kate Bush, TV on the Radio, Four Tet, Super Furry Animals, Serge Gainsbourg, Talking Heads, Moondog, Tortoise, T Rex, Boards Of Canada, Brian Eno, Manitoba, Caribou, Jeff Capes-World’s Strongest Man 1987, Dears, Dungen, Broken Social Scene, Cornelius, Prefuse 73, Roxy Music, Sly and the Family Stone, Van Fucking Morrison, Yes, Neil Young, Burning Spear.

Businessmen:

1) 224th Day
2) Troubled Son
3) Dead Fingers Talking
4) Rocket
5) Kingdom
6) Sarah Dreams of Summer
7) Apron Strings
8) All American Taste
9) Quiet Place
10) So
11) England Part 2
12) Over
13) Fallout
14) Forever
15) Stone Cold

Ghosts:

1) Eighty Eight
2) Donkey
3) Get a Fucking Haircut
4) Innocence
5) The Tree
6) The Tape
7) Asleep at the wheel
8) England
9) Soft Touch
10) Pixalated Birds
11) Je Suis Le Vent
12) Nancy Adam Susan (Shatter)
13) Home

When Jazz went electric, there were cries from the purists. When folk went electric, Dylan was dubbed “Judas” (at the 1966 Manchester concert with “The Band”). When the blues went electric it was part of a physical migration of predominantly black southern rural musicians into the urban north. This is how we got the “Chicago” blues.

Perhaps it was simply a matter of fact of modern urban culture, but the response to electric blues was much more positive - until it started wandering off in various directions: psychadelia; eastern fusions; open-ended jams - anywhere away from where purist cops tend the musical gates.

These departures began in the mid-1960s, when white college kids began a blues revival in an electric and increasingly psychadelic (blame the drugs?) mode.

By the 1970s, both blues and jazz were delving into fusions of various world rhythms, but leaning heavily towards soul-funk grooves that are still influencing up-and-coming musical artists, most notably in hip-hop and jam-bands.

John Lee Hooker’s “Free Beer and Chicken” is one of the best examples of blues-funk you may ever treat your ears to. But it’s not just the crisp, back-bone-slide grooves, or the wonderful minimalism in the added arrangements of horns, violin, keyboards, and even Kalimba (on Sittin’ on Top of the World), that make this album so great - it’s how intimate it sounds!

AMG reviewer Eugene Chadbourne describes “Free Beer and Chicken” as a “collection of tracks that were salvaged from some ambitious but never finished project involving dozens of guests”.

Chadbourne’s statement is likely based on expectations he has for Ed Michel, the legendary jazz producer responsible for Free Beer and Chicken. I think Mr. Chadbourne misses the point of a record like this. It isn’t about some grand project. It’s an intimate glimpse of Hooker in the studio where we get to hear the making of a record with a legend. So the record is more or less a documentary, which is highligted by Michel’s style of editing and mixing.

Free Beer and Chicken reminds me of the Captain Beefheart records of the “Trout Mask Replica” era, where plenty of intimate little clips between the “cast and crew” (in the case of TMR, the distinction might be difficult) are woven into the final offering, reminding us all that at the end of the day, this is just another record.

And that’s ok by me.

Track List:

1) Make It Funky (Hooker) 3:23
2) Five Long Years (Boyd) 6:02
3) 713 Blues (Hooker) 5:57
4) 714 Blues (Hooker) 1:39
5) One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer (Hooker) 3:33
6) Homework (Hooker) 4:27
7) Bluebird (Hooker) 5:25
8) Sitting on Top of the World (Chatmon, Vinson) 3:24
9) (You Never Amount to Anything If You Don’t Go To) Collage (Cocker, Hooker) 5:56

Why couldn’t more rap records be like this? Sure hip-hop’s got danceability and all dem kool breaks, and the underground stuff still has incredible instrumentation and smart political lyrics, but where’s the story? Albums like Hustler’s Convention compel you to sit down and pay attention. In the good ol’ days, people actually listened to music. Consider this my open call for hip-hop to get re-acquainted with the concept album. Give this a listen and then add your comments.

As a former member of the Last Poets, Jalal Mansur Nuriddin (aka Lightnin’ Rod) was a pioneer for the spoken-word funk that would lead to rap and hip-hop. Hustler’s Convention is a legendary album featuring Kool & The Gang (yes kiddies, they were actually cool at one point) and a virtual who’s who of session players (see below for more details). It’s the story of a ghetto hustler who quickly goes from bling-bling to sing-sing - prison that is.

Apparently Jalal is now collaborating with Malik Al Nasir (formerly Mark T. Watson) in his band Malik & The OG’s, featuring Gil Scott-Heron (another spoken word pioneer), percussionist Larry Mc Donald, drummers Rod Youngs & Kenny Powell, poet Benjamin Zephaniah, producer Robbie Gordon, and a host of young rappers from Washington DC for an album called “Rhythms of the Diaspora”, to be released in 2 parts in 2008.

I can’t seem to find any info on Rhythms of the Diaspora, except that it is slated to be released by CPR recordings. If you have any 411 on this upcoming release, add it to the comments below.

Credits:

Bass - Fred Backmeier (tracks: 2 to 5, 8)
Congas - Rocky Dejon* (tracks: 2 to 5, 8)
Drums - Phillip Wilson (tracks: 2 to 5, 8)
Featuring - Kool & The Gang (tracks: 1, 7, 9)
Guitar - Howard ‘Buzz’ Feiten* (tracks: 2 to 5, 8)
Keyboards - Neil Larsen (tracks: 2 to 5, 8)
Mixed By - Tony Bongiovi (tracks: 1 to 12)
Producer - Alan Douglas
Saxophone [Alto] - Julius A Hemphill (tracks: 2 to 5, 8)
Saxophone [Tenor] - Brother Gene Dinwiddie (tracks: 2 to 5, 8)
Vocals - Lightnin’ Rod (tracks: 1 to 13)

Track List:

1) Sport (2:36)
2) Spoon (1:13)
3) The Cafe Black Rose (1:47)
4) Brother Hominy Grit (2:42)
5) Coppin’ Some Fronts For The Set (2:23)
6) Hamhock’s Hall Was Big (And There Was A Whole Lot To Dig!) (4:08)

Bass - Jerry Jemmott
Congas - Pancho Morales
Drums - Bernard Purdie
Guitar - Cornell Dupree
Organ - Billy Preston
Piano - Truman Thomas
Saxophone [Baritone] - James Mitchell
Saxophone [Tenor] - Andrew Love , King Curtis , Lou Collins
Trombone - Jack Hale
Trumpet - Roger Hopps , Wayne Jackson

7) The Bones Fly From Spoon’s Hand (2:59)
8) The Break Was So Loud, It Hushed The Crowd (3:11)
9) Four Bitches Is What I Got (3:44)
10) Grit’s Den (1:34)

Bass - Chuck Rainey
Congas - Candido , Johnny Pacheco , Norman Pride
Drums - Jimmy Johnson (2)
Drums, Congas - George McCleery
Guitar - Eric Gale
Percussion - Gordon Powell
Piano - Richard Tee
Saxophone [Tenor] - Maurice Smith , Trevor Lawrence
Timbales - Bobby Matos
Trumpet - Charles Sullivan , Gerry Thomas , Wilbur ‘Dud’ Bascombe*

11) The Shit Hits The Fan Again [Sound Effects - Tom Clack] (3:34)
12) Sentenced To The Chair (1:40)

Bass - Chuck Rainey
Congas - Candido , Johnny Pacheco , Norman Pride
Drums - Jimmy Johnson (2)
Drums, Congas - George McCleery
Guitar - Eric Gale
Percussion - Gordon Powell
Piano - Richard Tee
Saxophone [Tenor] - Maurice Smith , Trevor Lawrence
Timbales - Bobby Matos
Trumpet - Charles Sullivan , Gerry Thomas , Wilbur ‘Dud’ Bascombe*

13) Doriella Du Fontaine (8:47)

Engineer - Dave Jerden
Guitar - Jimi Hendrix
Mixed By - Bill Laswell
Organ - Buddy Miles

14) O.D. (2:30)

Organ - Buddy Miles
Vocals - Alafia Pudim

15) Doriella Du Fontaine (Instrumental) (4:09)

Drums - Buddy Miles
Engineer - Dave Jerden
Guitar - Jimi Hendrix
Mixed By - Bill Laswell

Enjoy this free download of Harvey Danger’s Little by Little, their 4th and final album. The actual CD from the Phonographic label contains 9 extra tracks of demo versions and more.

AMG Review by Mark Deming:

Five years after their flirtation with major labels came and went with the release of 2000’s King James Version, Seattle punk-popsters Harvey Danger return to active duty with a few new musical wrinkles but all their smarts (and hooks) intact on their fourth album, Little by Little…. While Harvey Danger still display a healthy amount of energy on these ten tunes, their emphasis has shifted a bit as the arrangements lean less on guitars and more on keyboards, with less punk and more classic pop structures in the formula. The piano-dominated melodies of “Little Round Mirrors” and “Moral Centralia” are clean and satisfying with just the right amount of bite around the edges, and “Happiness Writes White” sounds like the work of a post-millennial version of the Merry-Go-Round, while Sean Nelson’s firm but flexible tenor is well suited to the new material. Producers Steve Fisk and John Goodmanson have just the right handle on this music, giving the tunes just the right amount of gloss without letting this stuff get too slick, and the band responded well to their treatment. And thankfully, the guys haven’t forgotten how to rock out, either, with “Cream and Bastards Rise” strutting its stuff with just the right amount of bile, and the acoustic but nervy “Cool James” takes on its targets with a liberating anger and passion. Left to their own devices, Harvey Danger have made a smart and compelling pop album that proves they have plenty of life (and talent) left in ‘em; this is as good an album as the bandmembers have ever made, and that “new musical direction” has thankfully taken them someplace worth visiting.

Why we’re releasing our latest album for free on the Internet:

In preparing to self-release our new album, we thought long and hard about how best to use the internet. Given our unusual history, and a long-held sense that the practice now being demonized by the music biz as “illegal” file sharing can be a friend to the independent musician, we have decided to embrace the indisputable fact of music in the 21st century, put our money where our mouth is, and make our record, Little By Little…, available for download via Bittorrent, and at our website. We’re not streaming, or offering 30-second song samples, or annoying you with digital rights management software; we’re putting up the whole record, for free, forever. Full stop. Please help yourself; if you like it, please share with friends.

Of course, the CD will also be for sale on the site, as well as in fine independent record stores across the country, in a deluxe package that includes a 30-minute bonus disc that serves as a companion piece to the record proper (retail price for the package is $11.99).

We embark on this experiment with both enthusiasm and curiosity—and, ok, maybe a twinge of anxiety. Why are we doing this? The short answer is simply that we want a lot of people to hear the record.

However, it’s important that people understand the free download concept isn’t a frivolous act. It’s a key part of our promotional campaign, along with radio and press promotion, live shows, and videos. It’s a bet that the resources of the Internet can make possible a new way for musicians to find their audience – and forge a meaningful artistic career built on support from cooperative, not adversarial, relationships.

We realize that digital files are the primary means by which a huge segment of the population is exposed to new music; we also believe that plenty of music lovers in the world will buy a record once they’ve heard it – whether via radio or computer.

We also believe there’s an inherent qualitative difference at work—not only between MP3s and CDs, but between clicking a mouse and finding a record on the shelves of a good record store. These experiences are not mutually exclusive – they’re interdependent facets of music fandom, and equally important considerations for a band in our position.

Even with the proliferation of websites and magazines paying attention to independent music these days, it remains difficult for bands—especially rock bands—to get exposure, regardless of how good they may be (or how successful they once were). Making the record freely downloadable removes the main barrier that exists between an artist and the world of potential listeners. And we do mean world; the web’s reach is everywhere.

Whether or not people will buy something they can get for free is obviously a big question, and there are facts and figures to support both sides of the argument. We think it’s not only possible, but likely. The more fundamental challenge is ensuring people have access to your work to begin with.

At the risk of sounding Pollyanna-ish, making records has never been about making money for this band. If the worst thing that happens is a whole bunch of people hear Little By Little… and no one buys it, we’ll know our experiment was costly. But that won’t make it a failure.

This is by no means a manifesto. We don’t pretend to be the first band to spin a variation of the shareware distribution model. We love record labels and record stores. We buy lots of CDs and are committed to supporting independent music. We’re not a bunch of fake Marxists. We’re just trying to be smart capitalists so we can sustain our lives as musicians. This is an experiment. We’ll let you know how it goes.

This is McDowell’s last recording, made on 5 November 1971 at the long defunct Gaslight in Greenwich Village. McDowell’s bottleneck style is now legendary, but at the time he was barely-known as a musician. He had only recently gained enough financial security as a musician to give up his day job as a share-crop farmer. The Rolling Stones brought him some fame (if not fortune) by recording “You Gotta Move” on their Sticky Fingers LP, released in April of the same year.

AMG Review by Kathleen C. Fennessy:

His motto was “I do not play no rock & roll,” and Mississippi Fred McDowell proceeds to play the “straight and natural blues” throughout this live engagement in New York City. When introducing “Shake ‘Em on Down,” which opens the set, he adds the qualification, “but it kinda sounds like it.” Good point. “Shake ‘Em on Down” and “Baby Please Don’t Go,” which concludes it, really do rock even if they don’t quite qualify as rock & roll. As McDowell adds, before launching into the sad tale of “John Henry,” “Blues is a feeling, and I really feel what I’m playing.” Clearly, labels didn’t mean much to the Delta bluesman, although he does draw a distinction between the blues and spirituals (pronounced “specials” in his deep Southern accent) prior to performing “Mercy.” Blues, he notes, come from what he knows, whereas spirituals come from the heart. Honest and forthright to a fault, McDowell confesses that he hadn’t been intending to play “You Got to Move” (popularized by the Rolling Stones on Sticky Fingers), because he’s tired of it. But if it’s what the audience wants, he’ll be happy to give it to them. And that he does, gracing the enthusiastic crowd with a laid-back but far from perfunctory reading. McDowell certainly took his obligation to his fans seriously, and this entire performance is a fine example of that ethos (it certainly didn’t take much coaxing on their part to get him to play one more song, the aforementioned barnburner “Baby Please Don’t Go”).

Track List:

1) Shake ‘Em on Down
2) I’m Crazy About You Baby
3) John Henry
4) You Got to Move
5) Someday
6) Mercy
7) The Lovin’ Blues
8) Goin’ to the River (Carry My Rocking Chair)
9) Baby Please Don’t Go

One of the most amazing albums ever from Frank Foster - a totally righteous set that’s light years ahead of his earlier work with the Basie Band! The format here is right up there with the best on Strata East at the time - a large-group session that’s filled with some of the hippest players of the early 70s - all coming together with a joyous, spiritual sense of power! Foster’s in the lead on tenor and soprano sax, but other players include Cecil Bridgewater and Hannibal Marvin Peterson on trumpets, Harold Mabern on keyboards, Elvin Jones on drums, Dick Griffin on trombone, Stanley Clarke on bass, Airto on percussion, and even Dee Dee Bridgewater on vocals! Tracks are all quite long and flowing - spiritual expressions of jazz that rival the greatness of anything recorded for impulse! - and titles include “The Loud Minority”, “Requiem For Dusty”, “JP’s Thing”, and “EW - Beautiful People”. (Review courtesy of Dusty Groove) A different rip of this album is also available on the Happy as a Fat Rat in a Cheese Factory blog.