What’s new for August, 2007?
The Move / Wizzard / Roy Wood / ELO - Career overview. Roy Wood has had a great career, but you might not know it if you ran from what was sometimes a musical onslaught of shrill proportions. This review investigates the far corners of Wood's musical endeavors, brings back was is best, and puts it all in one place.
Bob Dylan - Modern Times review - Really great, but kind of boring.
Grateful Dead - Dick's Picks, Volume 9 review. It's September 16th, 1990. Brent is dead. Bruce Hornsby brings his accordion along to fill in. You can get the review here, or check it out a few spaces down in our Grateful Dead Complete Record Reviews link.
Link Wray and his Ray Men - Law of the Jungle. A new release offers a batch of demo tapes released by Wray in 1964.
Grateful Dead Complete Record Reviews - We've completed 1966 - 1990 and are quickly putting in as many more as we can fit. This includes Dead work, solo work, Dick's Picks, and affiliated.
Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang and Elton John's Songs From the West Coast are reviewed together. Two surprises from a bunch of granddaddys.
Bob Dylan and the Dead - Dylan and the Dead, a 1989 release, continues our reviews of all things Dead. We'll be putting them all in one place soon.
The Monkees - Career Overview - There was no such thing as the Monkees. Welcome to the Machine.
Jackson 5 / Michael Jackson - Career Overview. We have rewritten our Michael Jackson articles and merged them with a Jackson 5 overview.
Robert Hunter - Amagamalin Street - We revisit Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter and his narrative accomplishment on Amagamalin Street, an overlooked release from 1984.
Bob Weir and Ratdog - EVENING MOODS review. Was Bob Weir the Dead's secret weapon. Of course - they had lots of secret weapons. Little Bobby can think big and this record proves it.
Grateful Dead - DICK'S PICKS, VOLUME 13 - Finally our attention to the extraordinary career of the Grateful Dead kicks off with the first of a bi-weekly or tri-weekly series of reviews of various Dead product.
The Animals - CAREER OVERVIEW - Another British Invasion entry. Burdon burns on...
Dave Clark Five - CAREER OVERVIEW - We are starting to work seriously on our British Invasion section so stay tuned. It might not surprise you to find out that the Dave Clark Five were not as good as the Beatles.
The Zombies - CAREER OVERVIEW - What connects a 2004 teenage San Francisco Beach Party to the 1968 Zombies? Hint: It wasn't a hit.
Alice Cooper - CAREER OVERVIEW - Alice Cooper's not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He should be. B. Frank explains why in a way even the cretin Dave Marsh might understand.
Nina Simone - CAREER OVERVIEW - Nina was an artist who couldn't compromise. The result was a stunning batch of pop, folk, jazz and gospel tunes supported by some great piano playing, and a no bullshit attitude. Her version of "Sinnerman" from the 1964 album classic Pastel Blues may explain Nick Cave.
RECENT:
WILSON PICKETT - CAREER OVERVIEW OF THE WICKED PICKETT, who, when all is said and done, is actually kind of a nice fellow.
We've just put up the controversial screenplay MIRRORS & SMOKE. This is Jeff Starlenz's script loosely based on GEORGE WALKER BUSH's hidden years. Dubya's a child of the sixties too; and Starlenz examines the character of a fictitious Senator's son and how it holds up against the character of a kid from the projects. Sex, drugs and rock and roll anybody?
OTIS REDDING - CAREER OVERVIEW OF THE MEMPHIS SOUND CATALYST.
YARDBIRDS - NEW REVIEW - BIRDLAND
PROCOL HARUM - NEW REVIEW - THE WELL'S ON FIRE
NEIL YOUNG - NEW REVIEW - GREENDALE
NEW JEFFERSON AIRPLANE RELEASES FROM BMG-HERITAGE. FIRST FOUR ALBUMS WITH BONUS TRACKS. WE WILL BE POSTING THE COMPLETE TRACK LISTINGS AND REVIEWS OF ALL FOUR ALBUMS SO PLEASE CHECK BACK:
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE: Takes Off
Their great 1966 debut, with bonus tracks High Flyin' Bird; It's
Alright; Go
to Her (Version 1); an alternate, unedited version of Let Me In;
unreleased
alternate versions of Chauffeur Blues and And I Like It, and
instrumental
take 10 of Blues from an Airplane!
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE: Surrealistic Pillow
Their 1967 breakthrough, along with Sgt. Pepper's THE soundtrack
to the
Summer of Love. Bonus tracks include mono single versions of
Somebody to
Love and White Rabbit; In the Morning; J.P.P. Mc Step B. Blues;
Go to Her,
and Come Back Baby.
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE: After Bathing at Baxter's
One of the most psychedelic albums ever made. Includes an
unreleased Marty
Balin acoustic demo; an unreleased alternate version of Grace¹s
bizarre Two
Heads; an unreleased instrumental version of Young Girl Sunday
Blues; a
long, live version of The Ballad of You, Me & Pooneil, and
the mono single
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE: Crown of Creation
The bonus tracks Ribumbabap Rubadubaoumoum; Would You Like a
Snack; Share a
Little Joke (single version), and the unreleased and suitably
bizarre The
Saga of Sydney Spacepig join the rest of this 1968 album, which
cast an
appropriately apocalyptic eye on the late '60s.
CLICK
HERE TO BUY
IN OUR KING OF POP SECTION:
JUST ADDED:
- The Rolling Stones - Career overview focusing on the dawn of rock pioneers.
- The Velvet Underground - THE QUINE TAPES (Bootleg Series, No. 1). Sometimes an old recording gives insight into a band's greatness. This one boomerangs back on the band and hits them in the crotch. JZ claims it rewrites rock and roll history. And not to the Velvets favor.
- Alice Cooper - DRAGONTOWN - You have to read this one. Not only does J.C. Cohen compare this Bob Marlette production to Brian Wilson, but he also adds: "if anybody could make a horrifically entertaining and morally jagged song about something like, say, Bill Clinton’s bombing of the Sudan hospital in Al-Shifa in 1998, which left hundreds of disease-ridden people dead and suffering through lack of medical supplies, it might be Alice Cooper." Please send your emails to J.C.
- Leonard Cohen - TEN NEW SONGS. Is Cohen the only musical poet still at the peak of his powers. We don't know - but JZ gives it a shot in a showdown between Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. (In the latest Rolling Stone interview - Dylan asks to be judged by what is out there, not by what he's already done. JZ is the first reviewer to comply with Dylan's wishes.)
- Bob Dylan - LOVE AND THEFT - new album review. Does he sustain a carrer comeback or make "inconsistent" his middle name?
- Procol Harum - CAREER REVIEW of the artsy, ambitious band with duo keyboads players. Our slant is the band only became better as the years went by, contrary to what you might have heard from dumb critics like Robert Christgau and Dave Marsh.
- Paul Revere and the Raiders - CAREER OVERVIEW. Dick Clark's boys never really grew up artistically. A representative of sixties' L.A. rock at a very superficial level.
- Plus, Part 2 of – YEARLY LISTS – We started it last year and said we'd update - but you know how we are. Albums from 1960 to the present with certain albums singled out as best of the year (our opinion only). Part Three, coming who-knows-when, will feature release dates of individual records. If you have any corrections, or release-date info regarding your favorite bands, send it our way and we will put it on.
- QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE career review – a great band that featured Nicky Hopkins, one of the best keyboard players rock has known (he played with the Beatles, John Lennon, Kinks, the Who, Jeff Beck, Jefferson Airplane, Jerry Garcia, Graham Parker, and many more). We just finished updating this - and we will have a review of the new live-from-1968 CD soon.
Other fairly recent adds:
- David Bowie – Review of Bowie’s latest album, HOURS.
- Jethro Tull – Review of newest Tull album, J-TULL DOT COM.
- Lesley Gore – Review of Lesley’s long lost Motown album, SOMEPLACE ELSE NOW.
- Lou Reed - Review of Lou Reed's new CD, Ecstasy.
IN OUR GRATEFUL DEAD SECTION:
Coming this week, a review of another Dick's Pick release. Stay tuned.
Added recently:
DICK'S PICKS – a section featuring all the releases by the Grateful Dead since 1990, including Dick’s Picks, Robert Hunter solo, Phil and Frieds – anything we can find that is Dead-related. Where the Aesthetics of the Grateful Dead stopped, our section begins. We kick it off this month with a review of DOZIN’ AT THE KNICK.
IN OUR SAN FRANCISCO LOCAL MUSIC SECTION:
We have the now LOCAL MUSIC TOP TEN for August featuring Imperial Teen, Storm, Devil Eye Brown, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Marginal Prophets, Motherhips and more. Just follow your host, Billie Eyeball, to a tour of what's going on with World For Ransom, current local San Francisco music.
COMING SOON: We will be focusing on the Dick's Picks section, but we will probably find time to throw in career reviews of Captain Beefhart and Otis Redding - both of whom we admire tremendously.