IKO IKO / Dr. John

Quería compartir esta fabulosa versión de un clásico de mi admirado Dr.Vaya músicos!!!!

CREAM

Biography
by Richie Unterberger
Although Cream was only together for a little more than two years, their influence was immense, both during their late-'60s peak and in the years following their breakup. Cream was the first top group to truly exploit the power-trio format, in the process laying the foundation for much blues-rock and hard rock of the 1960s and 1970s. It was with Cream, too, that guitarist Eric Clapton truly became an international superstar. Critical revisionists have tagged the band as overrated, citing the musicians' emphasis upon flash, virtuosity, and showmanship at the expense of taste and focus. This was sometimes true of their live shows in particular, but in reality the best of their studio recordings were excellent fusions of blues, pop, and psychedelia, with concise original material outnumbering the bloated blues jams and overlong solos.

Cream could be viewed as the first rock supergroup to become superstars, although none of the three members were that well-known when the band formed in mid-1966. Eric Clapton had the biggest reputation, having established himself as a guitar hero first with the Yardbirds, and then in a more blues-intensive environment with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. (In the States, however, he was all but unknown, having left the Yardbirds before "For Your Love" made the American Top Ten.) Bassist/singer Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker had both been in the Graham Bond Organisation, an underrated British R&B combo that drew extensively upon the jazz backgrounds of the musicians. Bruce had also been, very briefly, a member of the Bluesbreakers along Clapton, and also briefly a member of Manfred Mann when he became especially eager to pay the rent.

All three of the musicians yearned to break free of the confines of the standard rock/R&B/blues group, in a unit that would allow them greater instrumental and improvisational freedom, somewhat in the mold of a jazz outfit. Eric Clapton's stunning guitar solos would get much of the adulation, yet Bruce was at least as responsible for shaping the group's sound, singing most of the material in his rich voice. He also wrote their best original compositions, sometimes in collaboration with outside lyricist Pete Brown.

At first Cream's focus was electrified and amped-up traditional blues, which dominated their first album, Fresh Cream, which made the British Top Ten in early 1967. Originals like "N.S.U." and "I Feel Free" gave notice that the band were capable of moving beyond the blues, and they truly found their voice on Disraeli Gears in late 1967, which consisted mostly of group-penned songs. Here they fashioned invigorating, sometimes beguiling hard-driving psychedelic pop, which included plenty of memorable melodies and effective harmonies along with the expected crunching riffs. "Strange Brew," "Dance the Night Away," "Tales of Brave Ulysses," and "S.W.L.A.B.R." are all among their best tracks, and the album broke the band big time in the States, reaching the Top Five. It also generated their first big U.S. hit single, "Sunshine of Your Love," which was based around one of the most popular hard rock riffs of the '60s.

With the double album Wheels of Fire, Cream topped the American charts in 1968, establishing themselves alongside the Beatles and Hendrix as one of the biggest rock acts in the world. The record itself was a more erratic affair than Disraeli Gears, perhaps dogged by the decision to present separate discs of studio and live material; the concert tracks in particular did much to establish their reputation, for good or ill, for stretching songs way past the ten-minute mark on-stage. The majestically doomy "White Room" gave Cream another huge American single, and the group was firmly established as one of the biggest live draws of any kind. Their decision to disband in late 1968 -- at a time when they were seemingly on top of the world -- came as a shock to most of the rock audience.

Cream's short lifespan, however, was in hindsight unsurprising given the considerable talents, ambitions, and egos of each of its members. Clapton in particular was tired of blowing away listeners with sheer power, and wanted to explore more subtle directions. After a farewell tour of the States, the band broke up in November 1968. In 1969, however, they were in a sense bigger than ever; a posthumous album featuring both studio and live material, Goodbye, made number two, highlighted by the haunting Eric Clapton-George Harrison composition "Badge," which remains one of Cream's most beloved tracks.

Clapton and Baker would quickly resurface in 1969 as half of another short-lived supergroup, Blind Faith, and Clapton of course went on to one of the longest and most successful careers of anyone in the rock business. Bruce and Baker never attained nearly as high a profile after leaving Cream, but both kept busy in the ensuing decades with various interesting projects in the fields of rock, jazz, and experimental music.

John Ralston - Shadows of the Summertime

Novedad 2011


Biography
by Marisa Brown
As lead singer of the Legends of Rodeo, John Ralston found himself with no money and no contract after label problems plagued the release of his band's first album, A Thousand Friday Nights. The Florida native suddenly had no public outlet for his music, but a chance encounter with recording engineer Michael Seaman brought back the luck that Ralston had recently lost in the label split. The two hit it off immediately, and Seaman subsequently invited Ralston to spend some time at his home in Knoxville, TN. Accompanied by former bandmate and drummer Jeff Snow, Ralston traveled to Tennessee, and in the span of a week had recorded what would become his debut album, Needle Bed. Ralston released the album himself; shortly thereafter, he went to Chicago with the intention of overdubbing several tracks with Wilco's Jay Bennett, who had become a fan of Ralston's songwriting during the Legends of Rodeo days. Instead, Ralston ended up recording an entirely new album, There's Always an Ambulance Around the Bend. Although the album was not released, April 2006 saw the re-release of Needle Bed on Vagrant Records, who had signed Ralston to their roster the previous January. Ralston chose a more expansive approach for his next record, employing a backing band and layering upward of 100 individual tracks on each song. The resulting album, Sorry Vampire, was released in October 2007.

Are Major Labels About To Abandon The CD?

¿Cual es el futuro formato de la música?
Yo creo que el directo, ¿que opinais vosotros?

Are Major Labels About To Abandon The CD? Er, No
By Luke LewisPosted on 23/11/11 at 12:28:39 pm


'CD-format to be abandoned by major labels by the end of 2012', thundered the headline. You'd click on that, wouldn't you? Thousands did.

In the article, an anonymous writer for music site Side-Line , claimed that the music industry had hatched a secret plan to phase out the CD, "and replace it with download/stream only releases via iTunes and related music services."



The piece was poorly written, and named no expert sources (beyond its own "chief editor"), but that didn't stop it spreading faster than the "FENTOOOON!" meme .

continued...

It's since had 30,000 Likes, been parroted as fact by tech blogs , and generated fiery discussion on forums such as Drowned In Sound .

I even posted it on Facebook myself. That was before I actually read the article, at which point I thought, 'Hang on, this is total bollocks, isn't it?'

The writer claimed that he'd contacted EMI, Universal and Sony, all of whom "declined to comment". Which is a puzzle, because when I tried to get a comment from a major label it took precisely 30 seconds for them to reply saying the whole thing was "nonsense".

"We have no intention of stopping the production of CDs”, said Selina Webb, director of communications for Universal, pointing out that, although digital sales are growing fast, across the entire industry 74% of all album sales in 2011 have been on CD.

Meanwhile Chris Scott, a product manager for the same label, confirmed the continuing supremacy of the format, telling me:

The physical single might have become a niche product, but the physical album is a very important product indeed.
The labels would have to be frothing nutjobs to willingly discontinue their most profitable activity. Sure, everyone knows revenues from physical music are declining. But not as fast as you might think.

The market is currently worth around £10 billion. According to analysts , that will whittle down to £7.5 billion by 2015. But even then, physical sales will still bring in 30% more cash than digital.

As for Side-Line's claim that CDs will soon be replaced by "stream-only releases", that's laughable. Until the day when buying a monthly music subscription becomes a truly mainstream activity (hey, it could happen), no-one's going to make any serious money from streaming. As the musician Jon Hopkins put it on Twitter the other day:

Got paid £8 for 90,000 plays. Fuck Spotify.
So - the CD age is far from over. Still, Side-Line's article did at least ignite an interesting debate. If CDs ever do disappear, will we miss them? In the future will we fetishise them in the same way some people do vinyl today? So far the format has proved resistant to nostalgia, but for all the reasons I outline here, I'm convinced that will change.

Then again, the runaway popularity of the Side-Line piece also raises another question: why bother with actual journalism online, when you can guff out a load of wafty half-arsed nonsense, and watch the traffic roll in?

Electric Light Orchestra - It's Over (1977)

Esta genial canción...¿ no os recuerda esos arreglos de piano los que hacía Costello en mucho discos suyos?

Paul Weller to release new studio album 'Sonik Kicks' in March 2012

BUENAS NOTICIAS
Paul Weller to release new studio album 'Sonik Kicks' in March 2012 Paul Weller Tickets Graham Coxon and Noel Gallagher feature on the Modfather's 11th solo studio LP
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Photo: PressPaul Weller has announced that he will release his 11th solo studio album 'Sonik Kicks' in March next year.

The album will be released on March 26 and contains a total of 14 tracks. It also includes guest appearances from Noel Gallagher and Blur's Graham Coxon. You can hear a track from the album, which is titled 'Around The Lake', by visiting the singer's official website Paulweller.com . The track is also available to be purchased now via iTunes.

The album, which is the follow-up to his critically acclaimed, 2010 album 'Wake Up The Nation', will apparently include "pop art punch with soulful communication, jazzy explorations into psychedelia and dub with razor-sharp melodies, abstract soundscapes with clear-eyed forest-folk".

Weller has also announced two new London shows to promote the album's release. He will headline the UK capital's Roundhouse venue on March 18 and 19, with support from Baxter Dury. Weller will perform 'Sonik Kicks' in full at both shows.

The tracklisting for 'Sonik Kicks' is as follows:

'Green'
'The Attic'
'Kling I Klang'
'Sleep Of The Serene'
'By The Waters'
'That Dangerous Age'
'Study In Blue'
'Dragonfly'
'When Your Garden's Overgrown'
'Around The Lake'
'Twilight'
'Drifters'
'Paperchase'
'Be Happy Children'
ENTREVISTA

Graham Parker Struck by Lightning

DISCOS RECOMENDADOS

Review
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Struck By Lightning was the culmination of Graham Parker's previous two records, where he increasingly began to chronicle domestic tasks and affairs of the married heart. For such an intimate subject, Parker wisely decided to scale back the musical ambition of Human Soul on Struck By Lightning, recording a lean, stripped-down album that relies heavily on acoustic guitars. Appropriately, his lyrics were some of the most concise he has written in years, breathing life into tales like "The Kid With the Butterfly Net" and "Wrapping Paper." Parker's music is similarly simple and tuneful, making Struck By Lightning his best effort since the early '80s.

gruff rhys - hotel shampoo

Review
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Nominally inspired by Gruff Rhys' habit of collecting sample bottles of shampoo at every hotel he’s stayed at over the years, Hotel Shampoo is decidedly not a cosmetic concept album, yet it does have an underlying musical theme. Rhys uses this third solo album to slide into his softer side, creating a sweetly hazy, soft pop fantasia that recalls both Bacharach and the sunnier side of ‘60s psychedelia. Such softly swirling spaciness has been Rhys’ specialty ever since Super Furry Animals hit their stride, but the noteworthy thing about Hotel Shampoo is that he sustains his mood while serving up one of his strongest set of songs. The textures are tunes that are familiar yet not comfortable; they take twists and turns, with the melodies following unexpected contours and the arrangements colored with contrasting hues and textures. There’s a lot going on, but Hotel Shampoo never seems cluttered. It flows easily, so easily that it becomes an album to get lost in.

Rival Sons - Pressure And Time

Un poco de hard rock para el domingo

Review
by William Ruhlmann
Earache Records is nominally a label devoted to death metal, but anyone who buys Rival Sons' Pressure & Time expecting an album in that style is likely to be disappointed, just as any rock fan who avoids it with the same expectation will be missing out. The Los Angeles quartet consisting of singer Jay Buchanan, guitarist Scott Holiday, bassist Robin Everhart, and drummer Mike Miley doesn't play death metal, though its music might be called early or pre-metal. Simply put, Rival Sons are a power trio plus singer in the traditional style, who might have made this album after listening to the first Led Zeppelin LP over and over for a day or two. Songs like the title track and "Gypsy Heart" find Buchanan wailing away in a piercing tenor reminiscent of Robert Plant, while Holiday plays Jimmy Page-like power chords, and even the closing power ballad "Face of Light" is a Zeppelin-esque change of pace. Rival Sons do exhibit some other influences on Pressure & Time (which is their first album for a proper record label following the self-released full-length Before the Fire and an EP called Rival Sons). "All Over the Road," for example, calls to mind Deep Purple's early days (the days of "Hush," not "Smoke on the Water"), while Buchanan, despite singing in a higher register, demonstrates an Eric Burdon-like swagger on "Young Love." Of course, the band also calls to mind groups of subsequent generations that built on the hard rock sound of the late ‘60s, such as the Cult, the Black Crowes, Jet, and the White Stripes. So, anyone who likes that kind of music should overlook the implications of the record label and check out Rival Sons.

high fidelity distribution co. - album name analog style for a digital world

Interesante banda de powerpop aquí podéis disfrutar de su último lanzamiento.

ll words | music:
2011 © bruce reinfeld/BMI
credits
released 01 November 2011
--
hi-fi disco. recordings:
bruce reinfeld - guitar, vocal
tommy ciccone - guitar, bass, vocal
brian cristinzio - piano, organ, rhodes
patrick berkery - drums
--
produced by brian mctear
--
engineered by amy morrissey
and jonathan low
@ miner street recordings
philadelphia
--
cd layout design etc. - bruce reinfeld

tommy stinson - one man mutiny

Biography
by Erik Hage
Tommy Stinson is best known as the spiky-haired charismatic bass player of legendary garage punkers the Replacements. Stinson had barely hit puberty in 1979 when his 20-year-old brother, guitarist Bob Stinson, and drummer Chris Mars coerced him into learning bass and joining their fledgling group in the basement of the Stinson household. Soon, defining member Paul Westerberg would join and the Replacements would be born. In the boozy dynamics of the group, the youthful Stinson would play a sort of Hal to Westerberg's Falstaff. (Tommy's brother Bob was forced to leave the group in 1986 because of his debilitating addictions, and Bob died in 1995, his health worn down from years of drug and alcohol abuse.) After the demise of the group in 1991, Tommy went on to form the group Bash & Pop, releasing Friday Night Is Killing Me in February 1993. After that group folded, Stinson formed Perfect, which released the When Squirrels Play Chicken EP in 1996. In 1997, Tommy was featured on the rock remix of Puff Daddy's "It's All About the Benjamins." That same year, Perfect recorded a full-length album, Seven Days a Week, with producer Jim Dickinson, but record company snafus prevented it from being released. (It was belatedly issued by Rykodisc in 2004 under the title Once, Twice, Three Times a Maybe.) In 1998, the former Replacements bassist joined Axl Rose's revamped Guns N' Roses, but during the band's frequent time off, Stinson continued to work on solo projects, and in 2004 he released his first proper solo album, Village Gorilla Head. Seven years later in 2011, a second solo album, One Man Mutiny, appeared on Stinson's own Done to Death imprint, this time featuring background vocals from his fiancée, Emily Roberts.

Crazy Horse

Biography
by Greg Prato
Out of all the backing bands Neil Young has recorded and performed with during his long and illustrious career, the best-known of the bunch (and perhaps one of the greatest garage rock bands of all time) remains Crazy Horse. The band's roots lay in the obscure early '60s doo wop band Danny & the Memories, which contained future Crazy Horse members Danny Whitten, Billy Talbot, and Ralph Molina, among others. Although all three would later play instruments in Crazy Horse, the trio focused solely on vocals for this early band, as the group relocated back and forth from the East and West Coasts. After finally settling down in Laurel Canyon in 1966, the members picked up instruments (Whitten the guitar, Talbot bass, and Molina drums) and formed the Rockets.

Joining the trio were additional members Bobby Notkoff (violin), and two other guitarists, Leon and George Whitsell, who all played on the sextet's one and only record, 1968's self-titled debut. Shortly after the album's release, Whitten and Talbot met Neil Young, who had just left Buffalo Springfield and was about to launch a solo career. Young jammed with the Rockets at a gig at the famed Whisky A Go-Go, and immediately asked Whitten, Talbot, and Molina to play on a few new songs he'd written -- "Down by the River," "Cowgirl in the Sand," and "Cinnamon Girl." The trio accepted, playing on the three aforementioned songs and several others for what would become Young's sophomore effort, 1969's classic Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, resulting in the trio breaking up the Rockets to sign on with Young full-time, under the new name Crazy Horse.

The album established both Young and Crazy Horse as one of the most promising new rock bands, as he enlisted the band once again to play on his third solo release, 1970's After the Gold Rush. But at the same time Young joined up with Crazy Horse, he accepted an invitation to team up with Crosby, Stills & Nash. With extended periods of time between playing with Young, Crazy Horse inked their own recording contract, resulting in their 1971 self-titled debut. Although the record failed to match the success of their work with Young, it turned out to be an inspired effort (as Grin guitarist Nils Lofgren and renowned producer/pianist Jack Nitzsche guested on the album) showing that the group was not merely Young's backing band. But just as their own recording career began, Whitten became addicted to heroin, which hampered his talents and desire to play with the band, resulting in his leaving by 1972.

Crazy Horse continued on with a revolving door of replacement members taking Whitten's place for a pair of lackluster albums in 1972 -- Loose and At Crooked Lake. As Crazy Horse's career appeared to hit a skid, Young's career continued to flourish as he issued the biggest hit of his career, the mellow country-rock classic Harvest, the same year. When Young heard about Whitten's deteriorating condition (Young wrote "Needle and the Damage Done" for him), he wanted to help out his old friend and asked Whitten to be part of his touring band. But when Whitten proved to be too far gone during rehearsals, he was fired. On the same night he left Young and the band (November 18, 1972), Whitten overdosed and died.

Devastated, Young carried on with the tour, but reconvened with the surviving members of Crazy Horse by the summer of 1973, working on a set of dark songs he'd written about the seedier side of life. The band toured Europe later in the year (with Lofgren back on board) and recorded these new compositions, which wouldn't see the light of day until 1975, when the classic album Tonight's the Night was finally issued. The same year, the group named their official replacement for Whitten, newcomer Frank "Poncho" Sampedro, as the newly reinstated Neil Young & Crazy Horse issued their next release, Zuma, following it up with 1977's American Stars 'N Bars, and playing on a few tracks for Young's largely 1978 country effort, Comes a Time. Amid the flurry of recording, Crazy Horse managed to issue a fourth album on their own, 1978's Crazy Moon, which featured Young guesting on a few of the tracks and was easily their finest and most-focused effort since their debut release seven years earlier.

But the best was yet to come -- Young had thought up a surreal theatrical piece to accompany another new set of songs he'd pen (half were acoustic, the other half were pure hard rock), which featured roadies coming on-stage dressed like Jawas from the movie Star Wars, and the band was dwarfed by oversized speaker cabinets and other props. The ensuing tour was one of Young's finest, as the shows were recorded on both tape and film, resulting in 1979's classic Rust Never Sleeps, as well as a movie of an entire show from the tour (the film was also titled Rust Never Sleeps, while its soundtrack was issued under the name Live Rust).

Although Young took a three-year break from the concert stage afterwards, Crazy Horse still appeared on his studio recordings in the early '80s -- 1980's mellow Hawks & Doves and the 1981 rocker Re-Ac-Tor. Throughout the rest of the decade, Young tried a variety of musical styles with other musicians, but would usually include at least one member of Crazy Horse in these projects. After a proposed Neil Young & Crazy Horse tour in early 1984 failed to materialize, the band got back together two years later for a tour, and issued perhaps their weakest release ever (and poorest selling), 1987's inappropriately titled Life. With Sampedro deciding to stay behind and play with Young, Molina and Talbot recruited new members Matt Piucci (guitar/vocals) and Sonny Mone (guitar) and carried on under the name Crazy Horse, issuing their fifth album in 1989, the less-than-stellar Left for Dead.

But as previously in Young's career, it was only a matter of time until he gathered up the old troops, as Crazy Horse (sans Piucci and Mone) rejoined Young and Sampedro in time for the 1990 back-to-basics record Ragged Glory. The ensuing tour was a strong one, resulting in the release of the definitive Neil Young & Crazy Horse live album Weld, a year later (a video of the same name was released as well). The '90s saw further releases by Young and the group, including 1994's Sleeps With Angels and 1996's Broken Arrow, as well as the 1995 home video The Complex Sessions, the 1999 live album/movie Year of the Horse, and of course, numerous tours. 2001 saw another Young/Crazy Horse tour, during which they debuted several newly penned tracks, set to possibly surface on a forthcoming new album. Talbot kept himself busy during his time off around this period by starting the Billy Talbot Band, as well as a projected reunion with the '80s version of Crazy Horse (Talbot, Molina, Piucci, and Mone), this time under the name Raw.

The Cramps

by Mark Deming
Conjuring a fiendish witches' brew of primal rockabilly, grease-stained '60s garage rock, vintage monster movies, perverse and glistening sex, and the detritus and effluvia of 50 years of American pop culture, the Cramps are a truly American creation much in the manner of the Cadillac, the White Castle hamburger, the Fender Stratocaster, and Jayne Mansfield. Often imitated, but never with the same psychic resonance as the original, the Cramps celebrate all that is dirty and gaudy with a perverse joy that draws in listeners with its fleshy decadence, not unlike an enchanted gingerbread house on the Las Vegas strip. The entire psychobilly scene would be unthinkable without them, and their prescient celebration of the echoey menace of first-generation rock & roll had a primal (if little acknowledged) influence on the rockabilly revival and the later roots rock movement.

The saga of the Cramps begins in 1972 in Sacramento, CA, when LSD enthusiast and Alice Cooper fan Erick Purkhiser picked up a hitchhiker, a woman with a highly evolved rock & roll fashion sense named Kristy Wallace. The two quickly took note of one another, but major sparks didn't began to fly until a few weeks later, when they discovered they were both enrolled in a course on "Art and Shamanism" at Sacramento City College. These two lovebirds were soon sharing both an apartment and their collective enthusiasm for the stranger and more obscure sounds of rock's first era, as well as the more flamboyant music of the day. Their passion for music led them to the conclusion that they should form a band, and Kristy picked up a guitar and adopted the stage name Poison Ivy Rorschach, while future vocalist Erick became Lux Interior, after short spells as Raven Beauty and Vip Vop. Ivy and Lux hit the road for Ohio, and after living frugally in Akron for a year and a half, they made their way to New York City in 1975 in search of stardom.

While working at a record store, Interior made the acquaintance of fellow employee Greg Beckerleg, who had recently arrived from Detroit and also wanted to form a band. Beckerleg transformed himself into primal noise guitarist Bryan Gregory, and even persuaded his sister to join the nascent combo as a drummer. However, Pam Beckerleg didn't work out on traps, and so Miriam Linna, an Ohio transplant who had gotten to know Lux and Ivy during their sojourn in the Buckeye State, finalized the first proper lineup of the band they called the Cramps. Between Ivy's twangy single-note leads, Bryan's shower-of-sparks reports of noise, Lux's demented banshee howling, and Miriam's primitive stomp, the Cramps didn't sound like anyone else on the budding New York punk scene, and the foursome soon began attracting both crowds and buzz with their shows at CBGB's and Max's Kansas City. After about a year of gigging in and around New York, Linna left the group (she would later co-found frantic cultural journal Kicks Magazine and exemplary reissue label Norton Records), and another former Ohioan, Nick Stephanoff (known to his fans as Nick Knox and previously a member of infamous Cleveland noise terrorists the Electric Eels) took over behind the drums, and this version of the Cramps released the group's first recordings, a pair of 7" singles recorded in Memphis with Alex Chilton as producer and issued by the band's own Vengeance Records label.

In 1979, Miles Copeland signed the band to his fledgling new wave label I.R.S. Records, and their first 12" release was an EP featuring the material from their self-released singles, entitled Gravest Hits. That same year, the band traveled to Europe for the first time, playing as opening act for the Police and stealing the show from the peroxide-addled pop stars many nights. The Cramps returned to Memphis with Chilton to record their first full-length album, 1980's masterful Songs the Lord Taught Us, but what should have been a triumphant U.S. tour following its release was scuttled when Gregory unceremoniously quit the band by leaving unannounced with a van full of their equipment; at the time, a story circulated that Gregory left the Cramps to pursue an interest in Satanism, though in later interviews Lux and Ivy said there was no truth to these rumors and his actions were more likely the result of his addiction to heroin. Lux, Ivy, and Nick opted to move the band to Hollywood, CA, and recruited Gun Club guitarist Kid Congo Powers to take over as second guitarist in time to record their second long-player, Psychedelic Jungle.

In 1981, the Cramps filed suit against I.R.S. Records over unpaid royalties; the court case prevented the band from recording new material for two years, and when they returned to America's record racks, it was with a live album, 1983's Smell of Female, recording during a pair of dates at New York City's Peppermint Lounge. Kid Congo amicably parted ways with the band shortly afterward, and the search for the right record company kept the Cramps out of the studio until the U.K.-based Big Beat label released the ultra-lascivious A Date With Elvis in 1986; while several guitarists had come and gone since Kid Congo, for these sessions Poison Ivy ended up overdubbing herself on bass. In 1987, the group finally found a simpatico bassist in the form of tough gal Candy Del Mar, whom Lux and Ivy met in the parking lot of a liquor store. Del Mar made her recorded debut on the live album Rockin n Reelin in Aukland New Zealand, and she was still on board when the Cramps finally signed a U.S. record deal with Enigma Records and recorded the fine and full-bodied Stay Sick! in 1990.

Only a year later, the Cramps were back with a new studio album, Look Mom No Head!, but in a surprising move Nick Knox had left the band, and was replaced by Jim Sclavunos; after Jim's short tenure with the group, Nickey Beat (aka Nicky Alexander, former timekeeper with the Weirdos) took over the drum throne before one Harry Drumdini signed on. Less startlingly, Candy Del Mar was also out of the lineup, replaced by Slim Chance, a one-time member of the Mad Daddys. Harry and Slim joined Lux and Ivy in 1994 for the Cramps' first major-label album, Flamejob, released by the Warner Bros.-distributed Medicine imprint. As usual, much touring followed, and the band even made an appearance on the popular youth-centric soap opera Beverly Hills 90210 in 1995. The Cramps' major-label period proved to be brief, with Cal-punk indie label Epitaph inking a deal with the group to release 1997's Big Beat from Badsville, which featured the same lineup as Flamejob.

In 2001, Lux Interior and Poison Ivy Rorschach celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Cramps by taking the matters of record-making into their own hands; they revived the long-dormant Vengeance label and reissued their entire post-I.R.S. album catalog (except for Flamejob) on expanded and remastered CDs and colored vinyl LPs. A new Cramps album followed in 2003, Fiends of Dope Island, which (of course) featured yet another personal change, with Chopper Franklin becoming the band's latest bassist. And with the Cramps continuing their unholy mission well into the 21st century, they offered their fans a look back with 2004's How to Make a Monster, a collection of rare live material and demos.

Cracker

Biography
by Greg Prato
During Cracker's heyday in the 1990s, the Virginia-based band molded elements of alternative pop/rock and country into several irreverent, buzzworthy anthems. Singer/guitarist David Lowery made no attempt to mask his affinity for traditional roots music, but his own background was far from traditional, as he spent the '80s fronting the quirky alternative outfit Camper Van Beethoven. Shortly after Camper Van Beethoven embarked on a long hiatus in 1990, Lowery began demoing new material with guitarist Johnny Hickman and bassist Davey Faragher. The three musicians named the project Cracker (although several of those early demos would later surface under the title David Lowery Demo Mixes) and set up their headquarters in Richmond, VA. By 1991, the band had signed a recording contract with Virgin Records and enlisted the help of several drummers (Jim Keltner, Rick Jaeger, and Phil Jones), all of whom helped shape the sound of Cracker's debut album.

Cracker released their self-titled debut in 1992. Filled with guitar-driven rock songs and gravelly vocals, the album established Cracker's presence in the rock arena, and "Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)" became a number one modern rock single. A year later, the sophomore effort Kerosene Hat spawned another popular MTV/radio hit with "Low," which charted in the U.K. and also cracked the pop charts in America. The album went platinum as a result. By the time Golden Age arrived in 1996, however, the band's hitmaking lineup had begun to splinter. Bassist Faragher was replaced by Bob Rupe, while the drum spot was occupied by a trio of players: Charlie Quintana, Eddie Bayers, and Johnny Hott.

Golden Age spun off another hit with "I Hate My Generation," and the band toured in support of its release. After returning home from the road, Lowery began focusing on his Richmond-based recording studio, Sound of Music, where he produced such artists as Joan Osborne, Lauren Hoffman, Magnet, Fighting Gravity, and Sparklehorse. He also co-produced the Counting Crows along with former Camper Van Beethoven producer Dennis Herring. Lowery's work wasn't limited to the music world, however, as he co-starred in director Eric Drilling's independent film River Red (also composing the film's score) and appeared in another film, director Matt Leutwyler's This Space Between Us.

By the end of the decade, Cracker seemed to have settled on a somewhat permanent lineup comprised of drummer Frank Funaro, keyboardist/accordion player Kenny Margolis, and the preexisting core of Lowery, Hickman, and Rupe. This version of the band issued 1998's Gentleman's Blues, a more reflective album that saw the musicians paying homage to Southern rock and blues. Camper Van Beethoven unexpectedly re-formed shortly thereafter, and Lowery began splitting his time between both bands, whose other members frequently joined whichever group was on the road.

Cracker (along with select musicians from CVB) issued a live album, 2001's Traveling Apothecary Show & Revue, and Cracker followed its release with Forever (2002) and a rowdy set of country covers called Countrysides in 2003. The latter album also marked Cracker's first effort as an independent band, as they had recently left the Virgin roster. Three years later, Cracker returned (this time via the U.K.-based indie label Cooking Vinyl) with Greenland, which featured help from guest artists David Immerglück and Mark Linkous. Another concert release, Berlin (Live in Berlin December 2006), arrived in 2008, and the studio effort Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey which cracked Billboard's Top 200 chart, followed one year later in 2009. That same year the band went on a tour of Iraq, playing for U.S. troops while working on the "Yalla Yalla" video which was produced by compiling YouTube videos of American soldiers stationed overseas. Public radio network NPR profiled the tour on their weekly series The Show. A year later the band played a series of sold-out shows with Camper Van Beethoven duubed the 2010 Traveling Apothecary Tour.

sloan - the double cross -

Nuevo trabajo de estos veteranos. Dedicado a Jordi




Review
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Returning to normal operations after a three-year hiatus, Sloan offer a few new wrinkles on The Double Cross -- the polyester-draped “Your Daddy Will Do” salutes the ‘70s in a suitably spangly disco fashion, there’s a hint of delicate pastoral folk on “Green Gardens, Cold Montreal” -- but the group doesn’t stray from the pop collage of 2006’s Never Hear the End of It. Each of the 12 cuts lands somewhere between an homage and invention, the four singer/songwriters of Sloan splicing together their deep record collections in ways familiar and fresh. An organ may bring Dylan to mind, harmonies may recall the Beatles, yet these allusions are deployed with knowing winks in songs that don’t explicitly sound like their influences. Sloan are craftsman who weld their good taste into charming miniatures, and if The Double Cross retains a hint of familiarity -- not due to the source material but rather the workmanship -- the group’s level of skill assures that this is as comfortably satisfying as its predecessors.
Tracks

Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine

Un clasico de los clasicosç

Michael Kiwanuka : I'm Getting Ready

Una prometedora voz que viene de las islas británicas con tan solo 23 años recuerda a Bill Withers. Vuelve es soul de siempre



http://michaelkiwanuka.com/

MEGAFAUN - MEGAFAUN

Otra novedad recomendada y ademas dentro de poco los tendremos por aquí de concierto (Sidecar).Lastima que a no se pueda fumar en los conciertos!!!




Review
by James Christopher Monger
For their third studio album, spacy North Carolina-based, alt-country-folk trio Megafaun dial back the more progressive elements of their sound in favor of a languid, Laurel Canyon-inspired foundation that treads the middle ground between Blitzen Trapper's experimental, neo-Southern rock romancing, and Will Oldham's post-Palace Music infatuation with American Beauty-era Grateful Dead. While the eponymous Megafaun is far less exploratory than its predecessors, that doesn’t mean that the band has forsaken its acid-folk roots. At 15 tracks, some of which clock in at over seven minutes, it’s obvious that brevity is a word best left to grace the studio door mat, but outside of the Phishy, jazz-tinged “Isadora,” there’s little here that isn’t instantly accessible. Richly textured and laden with long, cavernous harmonies, songs like “Real Slow” and “Get Right” feel lived in and highway ready, while simpler, more compact cuts such as “Resurrection” and “State/Meant” wouldn’t have sounded out of place on fellow Carolina crooners the Avett Brothers' elegant I and Love and You.

The Best Of George Harrison On Film

The Best Of George Harrison On Film (Mojo)

The Bangles "I Will Never Be Through With You" - NEW SINGLE 2011

Encantadora canción de estas veteranas del pop

Review
by Tim Sendra
When the Bangles re-formed in the early 2000s and released Doll Revolution in 2003, the band seemed split between trying to recapture the jangle pop sound they had when they began and trying to stay current with the times (in terms of production). On the second album to come from their return, 2011’s Sweetheart of the Sun, there are no attempts to stay current. Instead, by hiring Matthew Sweet to co-produce, the band makes it clear that they are ready to embrace their power pop past. The record brims with jangling guitars, tough lead guitar work from Vicki Peterson, rich vocal harmonies, and a layered, live sound that sounds really, really good (and almost exactly what you’d hope the band who recorded All Over the Place in 1984 would sound like 25-plus-years later). The songs that Susanna Hoffs and the Peterson sisters (Debbi and Vicki) wrote for the record are good, too. Solid and gently hooky tunes about kids, relationships, and the realities of middle age life; they too sound like the best you could hope for all these years later. The mix of convincing rockers ("Ball N Chain," "What a Life"), rollickingly tender janglers ("Anna Lee (Sweetheart of the Sun)"), and a handful of introspective ballads is just about right, too, and shows the band is adept at conveying a wide range of moods and styles. And their choice of covers is predictably savvy. They rock out nicely on "Sweet and Tender Romance," an obscure British girl group song originally done by the McKinleys in 1964, and exhibit some amazing harmony singing on the Nazz's "Open My Eyes." The combo of songs, performance, and sound means that anyone who was saddened by the glitz pop turn the band took post-All Over the Place could look at Sweetheart as the true follow-up to their debut. The only thing that gives you a clue to all the time passed is the rough edges around the lead vocals. It’s kind of odd, really. They all sound miraculously ageless when singing in harmony but when singing alone they tend to push their voices past their natural limits and end up hitting some duff, craggy notes. Especially Hoffs, who takes the bulk of the leads. It’s too bad Sweet didn’t clamp down and reign in this small but noticeable problem, as it makes for some jagged moments. Still, Sweetheart of the Sun is a remarkably good record that comes long after anyone may have expected the Bangles to do anything much at all. Credit Sweet's production, but also the trio’s dedication and renewed skills and energy. Hopefully it won’t take another quarter-decade to follow this one up.

PUGWASH “THE OLYMPUS SOUND”

Un poco de pop para despertar en domingo

Impresionante nuevo disco de los Deadman, Ojala pudiéramos verlos en directo por estos lares. Empieza de nuevo el vals