this from www.realgonemusic.com
REAL GONE MUSIC’S JULY RELEASES:
POWERPOP BY 20/20, COUNTRY-PSYCH FROM CLOVER, BEAT POETRY WITH CHARLES BUKOWSKI AND SMOKE AND FIRE FROM SANFORD & TOWNSEND
Rounding out an eclectic month’s releases are Jackie Gleason and Bread’s Jimmy Griffin.
Steve Allen and Ron Flynt followed the power pop path blazed by fellow Tulsa natives Phil Seymour and Dwight Twilley when they moved in 1977 to Los Angeles, where they formed (with Mike Gallo) what has universally become one of the most highly regarded power pop/new wave outfits of the era, 20/20. How highly regarded? The long out-of-print CD reissue of their two albums (20/20 and Look Out!) on the Portrait label sells for over $50 — and that’s for a used copy. Real Gone Music has gone two better with the addition of a pair of non-LP single sides, “Child’s Play” and “People in Your Life,” which have never been on CD. So in effect, this twofer presents 20/20’s complete Portrait recordings. New liner notes featuring interviews with the band members, photos and a fresh remastering by Maria Triana at Battery Studios add to this collection’s 20/20 “vision.”
Clover is one of the most famous bands you have never heard of. They were the backing band on Elvis Costello’s My Aim Is True and a later incarnation of the group morphed into Huey Lewis & the News.
Among the founding members, John McFee became a Doobie Brother, Alex Call wrote hits for Lewis and many other artists (including Tommy Tutone’s “867-5309/Jenny”) and bassist Dr. John Ciambotti played on sessions for everybody from John Prine to Lucinda Williams. Given that pedigree, it’s rather astonishing that their first two records (Clover and Fourty Niner), cut for Fantasy in 1970 and ’71, respectively, have never been reissued. It’s no accident they were on Fantasy, either; not only did Clover hail from the Bay Area (Mill Valley), but they had a rootsy, early alt-country sound not unlike their more famous label-mate, Creedence Clearwater Revival. Alex Call himself supplies the liner notes to this overdue reissue, with added photos.
“This is Charles Bukowski. Well, let me just sit here and drink beer.” Thus begins the September 14, 1972 poetry reading from which his 1980 release on John Fahey’s Takoma label is drawn. Charles Bukowski Reads His Poetry is quintessential Bukowski, from the rude ’n’ crude drawing that adorns the front cover to the belches that punctuate the poems. As for the work itself, it’s not really what one might commonly conceive of as poetry, but rather observations and vignettes drawn from life’s darker side, focusing on perversions, poverty, drunkenness, gambling, and bodily functions. But Bukowski’s bemused air and self-deprecating humor blunt the shock value of the words and emphasize the universality of the themes. “I want you to hate me,” he says to the audience, but it’s hopeless — he is one of us. Real Gone has rescued this recording from the clinical, digital world of the CD, restoring it to a proper vinyl format. The album contains explicit material.
Is there any song that sums up the late ’70s pop radio like Sanford & Townsend’s “Smoke From a Distant Fire?” It had that blue-eyed soul, high-gloss L.A. production sound of the Doobie Brothers, Kenny Loggins and other superstars of the era, with the kind of hook only genuine pros could create. For, as is often the case with so-called “overnight sensations,” Ed Sanford and John Townsend had spent years in the music business before hitting it big with “Smoke.” Indeed, the sound of the Smoke From a Distant Fire album was no accident: the duo had worked with both Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins (who repays the favor with a great vocal on “Oriental Gate”) before cutting this 1977 release, whose sound also benefited from the nonpareil production skills of the great Jerry Wexler and Barry Beckett. Real Gone has paired it with their 1979 album Nail Me to the Wall, which was released under the name Sanford & Townsend Band and makes its CD debut here; their final release, it didn’t enjoy the same chart success as its predecessor but does offer the same studio-perfect, West Coast ’70s pop. The Smoke From a Distant Fire/Nail Me to the Wall twofer CD features liner notes by Gene Sculatti containing an interview with John Townsend.
Bread fans might know him better as James Griffin, but back in 1963 Jimmy Griffin was one of the up-and-comers on the artist roster of Frank Sinatra’s Reprise label. So up-and-coming, in fact, that the label’s newly hired head of A&R, Jimmy Bowen, elected to produce his debut record himself and bring in Jack Nitzsche to arrange. The result was one of those great, early-’60s productions that was a little bit pop, a little bit country and a little bit rock, with backing by the vaunted Wrecking Crew of Leon Russell, Hal Blaine, Glen Campbell et al. (Campbell contributes a couple of tunes to the album). Summer Holiday makes its CD debut here, augmented by all of Jimmy’s non-LP Reprise singles, with notes by musician friend Brian Gari and photos. The result is classic pop from the future Bread singing/songwriting stalwart.
Probably the most popular, iconic mood music album ever made, Jackie Gleason’s Music for Lovers Only set the stage for untold imitators to come with its evocative album artwork and lush, sweeping soundscapes. Released as a 10” LP in 1952, it set the record — which still stands — for most weeks in the Top 10 Album charts at 153, and hit the charts yet again in 1955 when it was released as a 12” LP.
But here is where the history of Music for Lovers Only becomes, like most romances, complicated. The original 10” included only eight tracks, but Capitol’s first 12” issue of the album added eight more for a total of 16; subsequently, however, the album was reissued on LP with 12 tracks, and the out-of-print sole CD release of Music for Lovers Only featured just the eight tracks from the original 10” release. Now, for the first time ever on CD, Real Gone Music is restoring this classic album to its full 16-track length, with its glorious, original artwork intact — another first — and in its original mono. As for those wondering what musical contribution Mr. Gleason made to the album, some say he conceived of melodies in his head and described them vocally to his assistants. But when Bobby Hackett, whose wistful trumpet lines were the focal point of the Gleason sound and of this album, was asked what Jackie contributed to the recordings, he replied: “He brought the checks.” Either way, Music for Lovers Only stands as The Great One’s greatest musical achievement.
Street date July 31, 2012:
20/20: 20/20 and Look Out
Charles Bukowski: Charles Bukowski Reads His Poetry
Clover: Clover/Fourty Niner
Jackie Gleason: Music for Lovers Only
Sanford & Townsend: The Smoke From A Distant Fire/Nail Me to the Wall
Jimmy Griffin: Summer Holiday
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lots of great music coming up this summer, including some DVDs, here's just a few releases to look forward to!
New Music Releases July 2012
July 3
Abandon All Ships - Infamous
Mike Patton - Laborintus II
Mum - Early Birds
Asia - XXX
July 10
Brendan James - Hope in Transition
Clare and the Reasons - KR-51
Delicate Steve - Positive Force
Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan
Husky - Forever So
Mission of Burma - Unsound
The Early November - n Currents
Twin Shadow - Confess
Jimi Hendrix - Jimi Plays Berkley (Blu-ray, vinyl, CD)
Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Child (documentary blu-ray)
Robert Plant & the Band of Joy - Live from the Artists’ Den (Live DVD)
The Rolling Stones / Muddy Waters - Live at the Checkerboard Lounge Chicago 1981
July 17
Baroness - Yellow and Green
Belle Histoire - Dreamers
Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
Jack Ladder and the Dreamlanders - Hurtsville
Matisyahu - Spark Seeker
Shintaro Sakamoto - How to Live With a Phantom
Soul Asylum - Delayed Reaction
Crosby, Stills & Nash - CSN 2012 (DVD)
Ozzy Osbourne - Speak of the Devil (DVD)
Various Artists - Black on Blues (Black Keys tribute with Ginger Baker, Leslie West + more)
July 24
Eternal Summers - Correct Behavior
Laetitia Sadier - Silencio
Micachu and the Shapes - Never
Passion Pit - Gossamer
The Antlers - Undersea
The Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten
Peter Gabriel - Secret World (DVD, Blu-ray)
July 30
Blur - Blur 21
July 31
thenewno2 - thefearofmissingout
Toadies - Play.Rock.Music
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awesome cover art!
IN THIS MOMENT: 'Blood' Album Cover Artwork, Track Listing Unveiled
Read more and get the tracklist at our friends at Blabbermouth
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album cover art of the day (i like skulls for some reason....):
German power metallers GRAVE DIGGER will release their new album, "Clash Of The Gods", on August 31 in Europe and September 4 in North America via Napalm Records. A six-song mini-CD, "Home At Last", will precede the full-length effort on July 27 in Europe and August 7 in North America.
Read more at our friends at Blabbermouth
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this from our friends at transmissionrecordings.co.uk
ALBUM: ‘LONG LIVE THE STRUGGLE’
LABEL: TRANSMISSION RECORDINGS
RELEASED: 2 JULY 2012
The news earlier this spring that The King Blues had disbanded sent ripples of confusion through the industry and created no small amount of distress among the group’s fans. Within minutes of the announcement, the news had trended world wide on Twitter and appeared on hundreds of social networking platforms and websites. Every platform from Radio 1 to The Guardian bemoaned the band’s passing and asked simply, why?
While the band’s demise is quite clearly a tragedy for music (who else fused the melodic touch of Bob Marley with the polemic of Joe Strummer?), the one ray of hope is that the band who went from week night support slots at Camden’s Purple Turtle to selling out the Roundhouse (also in Camden for all you geography nuts) have left us with quite possibly their finest work to date.
Long Live The Struggle released on 2 July through Transmission Recordings is the follow up to 2011’s critically acclaimed Punk & Poetry album and is a giant step forward in terms of the band’s sound, song writing and general approach. And while it retains the characteristics that have made The King Blues one of the most vital bands to come out of the UK in many a year, there is a newfound maturity and depth.
Tracks such as ‘We Are The Future’ and ‘Modern Life Has Let Me Down’ (released as a free download in May) still scream like the King Blues of old. Frontman Itch Fox spits out his lyrics with an anger last heard on early Rage Against The Machine albums. Lines such as Remind yourself your tie is not a noose and You can take this job and shove it are certainly not the musings of a man content with his or indeed, society’s lot. Elsewhere however, there are gentler, subtler outings such as ‘Walking Away’, ‘Tear Us Apart’ and the tearjerker, ‘Wasted Words’.
Part of this more mature sound is in part down to the efforts of producer John Feldmann. The LA-based sonic arranger who has brought his magic touch to artists such as Good Charlotte, The Used and Panic! At The Disco among others, had been eager to work with the band for a number of years. His keenness is evident throughout Long Live The Struggle, employing different genres and musical textures throughout its 12 tracks. There are special guests on the record too. ‘Can’t Bring Me Down’ features Jason Butler, while Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong guests on ‘Booted Out of Hell’.
Even posthumously the King Blues still do what they always did best: producing a rallying cry that sounds neither pompous nor judgemental. This time they’ve gone and done it with a bit more flair. They were never going to go out with a whimper, let’s face it.
The King is dead. Long live the King Blues. And the struggle.
Tracklist
1. We Are What We Own
2. We Are The Future
3. Modern Life Has Let Me Down
4. Wasted Words
5. Can’t Bring Me Down (Feat. Jason Butler)
6. Tear Us Apart
7. This Is My Home
8. Booted Out Of Hell (Feat. Tim Armstrong)
9. Power To The People
10. Walking Away
11. When The Revolution Comes
12. Keep The Faith
The King Blues - Long Live The Struggle
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Tantara are scheduled to release their new album 'Based On Evil' on August 24th via Indie Records. The band will also release a 7" vinyl for the "Based On Evil" single on June 29th.
1. Based On Evil
2. Mass Murder
3. Negligible Souls
4. The Debate
5. Human Mutation
6. Trapped In Bodies
7. Prejudice Of Violence
8. Killing Of Mother Earth
According to a press release:
"The plans to make a full-length record began right after the release of the EP 'Human Mutation' in 2010 and the band started the search for the right producer. Tantara entered the studio again in July 2011 to record their long anticipated debut album with the legendary producer Flemming Rasmussen. The band chose Rasmussen because of his background of producing records for bands like Rainbow, Metallica, Blind Guardian and Morbid Angel. The album 'Based On Evil' was recorded during four weeks in July 2011 in the studios ARK Recording Studios and Sweet Silence Mix Suite in Copenhagen, Denmark.
"Based On Evil is filled with fast, mind-boggling riffs, aggressive vocals and impeccable drumming. In addition to the melodic and masterly conducted solos one can find progressive elements in Tantara’s music. Their songs might be longer than normal in the genre, but they possess a unique song-writing talent that keep the listener engaged throughout the whole album. Tantara draws inspiration from bands such as Heathen, Anthrax, Exodus, Megadeth, Slayer, Nuclear Assault, Vio-lence and Metallica."
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BOSCO DELREY (MAD DECENT) COVERS PAUL SIMON'S "I KNOW WHAT I KNOW" FOR GRACELAND'S 25TH
In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of Paul Simon's classic Graceland album, bands have been submiting cover videos. Two weeks ago Louisiana's GIVERS covered That Was Your Mother and last week folk singer/songwriter Brett Dennen took on Crazy Love Vol. II.
Today, we're excited to share an amazing rendition of "I Know What I Know," courtesy of Mad Decent's Bosco Delrey.
Bosco Delrey 'I Know What I Know'
The Graceland 25th Anniversary CD/DVD/LP and box set is out now on Sony Legacy.
For additional information about the 25th anniversary of Graceland, related programming and products, please visit www.graceland25.com
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interesting read, i love his work, had the opportunity to speak with roger a few years ago and found him quite friendly, like his legendary artwork!
Roger Dean: The man behind the fantastical Yes album covers
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