Sunday, January 25, 2015

Seed - Ling


Sometimes there are bands, that for whatever reason, have a short history but they have left their mark in the music world. In 1994, during the reign of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and Soundgarden, we also had bands like Jellyfish, The Posies and this band from Austin, TX - Seed, who released one of the most underrated CD's of the 90's titled "Ling".


Drums - Kyle Schneider
Bass/Vocals - Chadwick Salls
Vocals/Guitar - Gabriel Ordonez
Guitar - Dean Truitt


As far as a fan's point of view, this is how I remember it happening in 1994.
The band is seen all over television including MTV 120 Minutes, Conan O'Brian and the Jon Stewart show, promoting the singles "Rapture" and "Doe"  with the release of the CD. The band tours for a short time....They're gone, well the original line-up anyway. I've seen a few videos with a newer line-up in 1996, but really, that's it.
It's also very bizarre in this day and age with the internet, that so little is out there about this band who created some great music I still really enjoy.





Rapture   MP3   WAVE
Virgin   MP3    WAVE
Baa Baa Song   MP3   WAVE
Kids.... This Is Fabulon   MP3   WAVE
Ladybug   MP3   WAVE
Nail   MP3   WAVE
You Should Not Take These Things For Granted   MP3   WAVE
Doe   MP3   WAVE
Tortoise Shell   MP3   WAVE
Fortune *   MP3   WAVE
For Adam    MP3   WAVE
Mariposa **   MP3   WAVE


All Songs Written by Chadwick Salls except * 
by Chadwick Salls and Gabriel Ordonez 
and ** by Chadwick Salls and Dean Truitt


Fan Made Facebook Page

Article about the band

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Strontium 90 - Police Academy



I have always been a big fan of the band The Police. From the band's first album Outlandos d'Amour, released in 1978, which includes such songs as "Roxanne", "Can't Stand Losing You" and "So Lonely", I was hooked. The first time I saw them live was on the "Ghost In The Machine" tour which was just amazing. 

As with any band, I enjoy the origins of how they began. In 1997, this CD was released. It gave us a rare look at some music that later would play a big part of MTV and music history. Strontium 90 is a band that included Sting, Andy Summers, Stewart Copeland and Mike Hoowlett. This is Mike Hoowlett's explanation of the band and the contents of the CD, as described on the back of the CD:


I first saw Sting play live in a room above a pub in Newcastle on tyne, England, in the summer of '76. The band was Last Exist, sounding a bit like Weather Report with vocals.  Sting soon moved to london following his best chance instinct.  I had just quit my group Gong and was working on material for my own project.  I asked Sting to sing on the demos I was recording.  Meanwhile I'd bumped into Andy Summers at a party in January '77.  He'd been out of the scene for a couple of years studying classical guitar.  When I asked him to play on my demo, he was glad to do something new.

I needed a drummer.  Sting had met Stewart Copeland, he'd bring him along.  So that's how it happened.  We all met in a studio called Virtual Earth around February 1977.  this was the first time Sting, Andy and Stewart played together.  That session makes up the studio part of this record.

The first gig was in huge circus tent in Paris in front of 6,000 crazy French hippies on May 28, 1977.  It was a reunion of my old group Gong - an all day event with each band member bringing his own current project.  Mine was Strontium 90, and this was the first time we had played live.  That was the first time Sting, Andy and Stewart stood on a stage and played together.  The gig was recorded but only the monitor mix survives which makes up the live part of this record.

Strontium 90 was just a step on the path that ended in The Police.  For the observer of patterns, here is a footnote in the history of popular music.  For the lover of moments of magic, here are a few gems!



1.  Visions of the Night  MP3    WAVE
2.  New World Blues   MP3   WAVE      
3.  3 O'Clock Shot - Live   MP3   WAVE
4.  Lady of Delight   MP3   WAVE
5.  Electron Romance   MP3   WAVE
6.  Every Little Thing She Does is Magic   MP3   WAVE
7.  Towers Tumbled   MP3   WAVE
8.  Electron Romance - Live   MP3   WAVE
9.  Lady of Delight - Live   MP3   WAVE


Andy Summers - Guitar
Stewart Copeland - Drums
Sting - Lead Vocals - Guitar (tracks 2, 6) - Bass (tracks 1, 6, 8)
Mike Howlett - Bass (solos on tracks 5, 7, 8)

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Frank Turner - Show #1625


Frank Turner is a English folk-punk singer/songwriter. He, however, began as the singer of the Post-Hardcore band, Million Dead. In 2005, he started his acoustic-based solo career that, in England, was something that caught on very fast. As a few years passed, he became so popular in England that when the Olympics were in London in 2012, Frank played at the opening ceremonies.
In America it was more of a word of mouth thing, finding out about Frank and his fun and talented songwriting and showmanship. In 2012, he released "Last Minutes And Lost Evenings" which is a compilation of songs from his earlier albums. In 2013, he released "Tape Deck Heart"  Both of these CD's opened the eyes in America a little more and soon he was playing everywhere in America and the rest of the world. Hell, I even saw him play on the Ellen Show. 

Patty (my wife) and I have seen Frank a more then few times and have really enjoyed the atmosphere of every one of his shows. We've both seen and heard thousands of bands and  heard lots of music but, at a Frank Turner show, the vibe is like no other I have felt. His audience, at the shows I've been to, has a widely distributed age group. I've seen everything from kids that are 10 years old to 70 year olds, all singing along to the songs.  I urge you to listen to more of  his music and I think this show may encourage it on what was one of the greatest nights of music I've been a part of.


One thing I was always jealous about Frank Turner being big in England, was the stories and videos I saw of him playing acoustic shows in small pubs somewhere in England. Everyone seemed to join in to making every song a sing-a-long, drinking pints of beer at the bar. Well, I guess if you dream enough, some of the craziest things can really happen.


After having a long day at work, I got home and decided to have a few beers, four tall boy Heinekens to be exact, and to listen to some music for a couple of hours . Patty had just gotten home around 9:30 P.M. after a long day at work and a few  hours of volunteer work under her belt, a long and tiring 14 hour day at that point for her; it was time for her to relax and catch up with our daughter. About 30 minutes, later I came back to see what she was doing and I picked up her phone and for some reason it vibrated. I'm not sure how her phone works so I gave it to her and told her, "I'm not sure what I did, but it vibrated." She said that I had turned it on when I picked it up. After the phone loaded, she decided to check Twitter. Next thing I hear is "Oh, shit, Frank Turner is at the Gingerman and doing a free show - you just have to show up." My reaction..."What??!!! Frank Turner is doing a free show now!!! At The Gigerman!! What??! We gotta go!! We gotta go !!!" It's about 10:15 on a Thursday night and we both have to work the next day. The other part of the story is Gaslight Anthem and Cory Branan were playing at the Aragon Ballroom on this night as well, which is a show we wanted to go to, but we both got off of work too late. Alkaline Trio was also playing a four night extravaganza at completely sold out shows, which I also wanted to attend but could not.

The Gingerman or Gman Tavern is located on Clark Street in Chicago. It's in Wrigleyville; well, it's just a few short blocks to the park. It's also just a few doors down from the famous Metro. I think it might hold, at most, 150 people. We got there in less then 30 minutes, lucked out once more with a parking spot directly across the street from the Metro. The line to get in was short, but it was only a 2-out, 2-in kind of thing because the place was packed to begin with. So the question was, are we going to get in? Shortly that was answered with a gleeful YES and we headed to the bar to get a drink from Katie who, we would find out later, had a little something to do with the show. So, from a tweet that happened about an 1-1/2 hour earlier, we were now standing in a bar, with drinks in our hands, on a Thursday night, at midnight and what happened next was a night full of fulfilled dreams, extreme pleasure in the joy of music and one of, if not the greatest nights of music, drinking and singing with a group of people that we've ever had the pleasure to enjoy.









As a bonus, I found out about this a few days after the show. 
It's about 50 minutes of music from this amazing night.

MP3   WAVE

I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous
The Way I Tend To Be
Reasons Not To Be An Idiot
I Am Disappered
Victory Bell (snippet)
?
Plain Sailing Weather
Peggy Sang The Blues
Sustitute
Long Live The Queen
Recovery
I Still Believe
The Balland Of Me And My Friends
American Girl



The show was also talked about online at Punktastic.
It also includes some other great photos from the night.
Just Click Here


Thank you to 
 Frank Turner, Katie & everyone at The Gman!

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Robert Plant - Pre Led Zeppelin


Before being asked to join Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant had been working on music since the age of 15 with other bands and had also tried a short-lived solo career.These recordings are rare and are not talked about or heard very often. I came across these many years ago when I was a big Led Zeppelin collector. I did own most of these at some point and always enjoyed playing the super rare 45's.
The other important thing that happened during this time is Robert Plant and John Bonham played and recorded together in the third line up of the Band Of Joy.

 
Robert Plant with The Brum Beats in 1963


In 1966, Robert was signed to CBS Records. His first single was released under the band name, Listen. The label thought a band, instead of a solo artist, was the way to go for Robert.
It was released in the U.K. and in the U.S.



You Better Run   MP3   WAVE
Everybody's Gonna Say   MP3   WAVE



In 1967, Robert released two singles as a solo artist for CBS.
The second single, "Long Time Coming/I've Got A Secret," is rumored to include John Bonham on drums but I have never found anything to verify that. You will notice they have a lot more of a Soul or R&B feel then Zeppelin ever did.



Our Song   MP3   WAVE
Laughin' Cryin' Laughin'   MP3   WAVE



Long Time Coming   MP3   WAVE
I've Got A Secret   MP3   WAVE



Robert Plant and John Bonham had played together in the band, the Crawling King Snakes. Sadly, we have no music or photos from that band or era. We do, however, have the pre-Zeppelin recordings and photos of The Band Of Joy with Plant and Bonham together. My understanding is there were a few different lineups of The Band of  Joy, including the first without John Bonham.



And then music history was changed forever with the third line-up of the Band Of Joy with the early beginnings of the supergroup Led Zeppelin. Luckily, acetate recordings were made of three recordings of the Band Of Joy from this era, including the band's first original song, "Got To Find My Baby". They are very rare and are a big piece of music history that has been missed in the big picture and I thought I'd pass these along to my fellow readers and music geeks.


For What It's Worth   MP3   WAVE
Got To Find My Baby   MP3   WAVE
Hey Joe   MP3   WAVE