Music « Marc's Music List

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Rattlesnakes (1984)

April 19, 2009

The geniuses at Universal Music disabled embedding for this video. I guess they don't want anyone promoting their music. Click the image to open YouTube in a new window.

Lloyd Cole flew under my radar. I’d heard of him, but I wasn’t all that familiar with his music until sometime last year when I bought a couple of his albums, 1984-1989, and Music in a Foreign Language. How’d I miss him? I mean, I currently have 15,122 songs on my hard drive, which works about to about 1,260 albums if you allow for 12 songs on an album. Dunno, I guess it’s just one of those things.

Lloyd is British and currently lives in Massachusetts. His band The Commotions released their first album, Rattlesnakes, in 1984. The video presented here is the title track from the album.

The Commotions released two more albums before disbanding in 1989.

“I made myself write songs because that’s what you had to do if you wanted to be like Marc (Bolan) or David Bowie. My primary motivation was, in retrospect, wanting to be famous, which is quite sad but probably fairly common. Then you get to the point where you have to get a different motivation to carry on. My only goal at first was to be on Top of the Pops and on the cover of the NME.”

Interview, The Guardian, 2004

After moving to New York, Lloyd embarked on a solo career, although he released an album with New York musicians (including Jill Sobule) in 2000 under the name of The Negatives. He contributed one of the memorable tracks on 1991′s Leonard Cohen tribute album I’m Your Fan, with a cover of Chelsea Hotel.

I e-mailed Cole’s management to ask if there was a mailing list notifying fans of upcoming gigs but my e-mail was met with stony silence.

Lloyd Cole Weblog

Leave a Comment » | Alternative Music, Eighties music, independent music, Music, Rock music, Singer-Songwriter | Tagged: Lloyd Cole, The Commotions, The Negatives | Permalink
Posted by Marc Librescu

Paul Kelly – Before Too Long (1986)

April 12, 2009

paul-kelly Paul Kelly has received much recognition in his native Australia—he was inducted into the the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame in 1997. He remains less well-known in the United States, where the current top 20 includes albums by Lady GaGa, Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, and the rap “musicians” du jour.

Talk, the first album by Paul Kelly and the Dots, was released in 1981. Subsequent bands and projects include Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls, Paul Kelly and the Messengers, Paul Kelly (solo), Paul Kelly and the Stormwater Boys,
Uncle Bill, Professor Ratbaggy, Paul Kelly and the Boon Companions, and
Stardust Five. Paul co-wrote the hit song Treaty with Aboriginal rock band Yothu Yindi and wrote material for other musicians. He also recorded soundtracks for the films Lantana and One Night the Moon.

…Lyrics are important but the most beautiful lyrics in the world are going to be no good unless you’ve got a decent tune.

Paul Kelly, Dirty Linen Interview, 1992

I had the good fortune to interview Paul during the 1992 Adelaide Festival, after a performance of Funerals and Circuses, a play written by the late Aboriginal playwright Roger Bennett. Paul acted and sang in the play. Here’s a slightly expanded version of the interview, which originally ran in the October/November issue of Dirty Linen.

After I interviewed Paul, he was kind enough to arrange for me to pick up some of his CDs at Mushroom Records in Sydney. When I got back to Boston, where I was living at the time, I listened to the CDs and really enjoyed them. One Sunday, about two weeks after I’d returned from Australia, I decided to go to Tower Records to see if I could find any more of Paul’s music.

I walked into the CD section of the store and although their was a divider with his name on it, they were out of CDs. Back in those days, they were still selling cassette tapes, so I went into the cassette section of the store to see if they had any of Paul Kelly’s albums on cassette.

I saw this guy bending over to pick something off the floor that he must have dropped. All I could see was the top of his head facing me and I thought that from the top of this guy’s head, he looked like Paul Kelly. The guy stood up and my jaw dropped in disbelief—it was him! I’d just interviewed him two weeks earlier in Australia and I ran into him in a record store in Boston, on the other side of the planet. What were the odds of that?

“Holy shit,” I said, “It really is a small world.” I asked him what he was doing in Boston and it turned out that he’d played a gig the night before and was still in town. Unfortunately, I hadn’t heard about the gig or I would have gone.

The video presented here is Before Too Long, which appears on the album Gossip.

Click image to buy Songs from the South, Vols. 1-2.

Leave a Comment » | Folk Rock, Music, Rock music | Tagged: Paul Kelly | Permalink
Posted by Marc Librescu

Colin Hay – Are You Lookin’ at Me? (2007)

April 4, 2009

colin-hay You may remember Colin Hay from his days with Men at Work, the pop music darlings of the 80′s. They saw meteoric success, massive overplay, and like a meteor, they crashed and burned.

But Colin never stopped making music. As he says in this song, “I was built to last.” Two appearances on the TV show Scrubs helped rekindle interest in his music.

Zach Braff used to come and see me play at Largo — before he was in Scrubs actually — and had a copy of my album for quite a few years. He then got the gig in Scrubs and said to me one night that he would try and get some of my songs placed in the music.

Colin Hay, Santa Barbara Independent interview

Colin’s wife, Cecilia Noël provides backup vocals on his songs and at his live shows (where she’s notable for her expressive dancing). She also appears in this video.

Colin makes good music that, for the most part, doesn’t get the exposure that it deserves. The death of rock radio has made it hard for any rock act to get new music heard.

A new album is due out soon.

Buy Are You Lookin' At Me? CD

Leave a Comment » | Eighties music, Music, Rock music | Tagged: Colin Hay, Eighties music, Men at Work | Permalink
Posted by Marc Librescu

Oysterband – Molly Bond (1986)

March 28, 2009

Originally known as “The Oyster Band,” Oysterband is a folk-rock band formed in Canterbury, UK, some time around 1976. The band’s music fuzes rock and British folk music, and the result is electifying.

Unfortunately, the band is virtually unknown in the U.S. Back in the day when there were rock radio stations, they wouldn’t play folk rock. The only way American listeners would have been able to hear the band on the radio would have been on a college station.

The band’s current lineup is:

Chopper – bass guitar, cello, vocals
John Jones – melodeon, lead vocals
Alan Prosser – guitars, viola, vocals
Ian Telfer – fiddle, English concertina, vocals
Dil Davies – drums

I was lucky enough to see the band in Providence, RI back in the early 90s (during what was probably one of their only American tours) and to meet them. I have a friend in Boston who knows the band so we got to hang out with them before and after the gig. They’re about the nicest guys you’ll ever meet.

“We’ve got a song called “On The Edge” which is a rant against globalization and in particular against McDonalds…You can go into the Arctic Circle and they’ll be a McDonalds that’ll serve exactly the same food as you get in New Zealand. What is the point of that? It takes away all the fun of traveling and all the differences between the countries, and the food’s shite anyway.”

— Chopper, Folking.com interview, 2001

The band moves effortlessly between straight-on Celtic-influenced rock and traditional ballads. The ballads, such as the one presented here, showcase singer John Jones, who has one of the finest singing voices in the world.

Molly Bond tells the story of a hunter who accidentally shoots and kills his beloved Molly, mistaking her for a swan. At his trial, Molly’s ghost appears to the judge and explains that it was an accident.

This video comes from the band’s 2003 25th anniversary concert in London.

Molly Bond
(Trad. Arr. Oysterband)

Lyrics from: Step Outside

Come all you young gallants that delight in a gun
Beware of your shooting at the setting of the sun

It happened one evening in a large shower of hail
When under a bower my love was concealed

He apron flew around her, I took her as a swan
And I shot my own darling at the setting of the sun

As I walked up to her and found it was she
My limbs they grew weary and my eyes couldn’t see

The ring on her finger, most bitterly I cried
O Molly, if you were living, you’d've been my fond bride

Home to my father like lightning I did run
Saying Father, dearest father, do you know what I’ve done?

Her apron flew around her, I took her as a swan
And I shot my own darling at the setting of the sun

Her apron flew around her, I took her as a swan
And I shot my own darling, and where shall I run?

His father in the corner with his hair turning grey
O my dear Jimmy, don’t you run away

Stay in this country until the trial comes on
You never shall be hung by the laws of this land

The day of the trial to the judge she appeared
As God is my witness young Jimmy must go clear

My apron flew around me, he took me as a swan
And I know his heart lies bleeding for his own Molly Bond

Molly Bond appears on the albums Step Outside and Alive And Acoustic (no longer available). The live version is slightly different than the original album version—I think it’s in a different key.

Oysterband Web Site
Oysterband MySpace Page

Buy Meet You There CD.

Buy 25th Anniversary Concert DVD

Leave a Comment » | Celtic music, Folk music, Folk Rock, Music, Rock music | Tagged: Folk Rock, Oysterband, The Oyster Band | Permalink
Posted by Marc Librescu

Julia Darling – Photographs (2003)

March 20, 2009

A New Zealand native, Julia Darling bought a guitar and learned how to play it. At age 18, she left home and began busking in Melbourne, Australia. It was only a few months before she was signed to a record deal.

The record company flew Julia to New York, where she worked with seasoned studio musicians (including Jon Brion and ex-Eels drummer Jonathan “Butch” Norton) and recorded her debut album, 1999′s Figure 8. While the album garnered critical acclaim, sales were less than stellar (which was probably due to the label’s lack of promotion). Julia’s record company dropped her and she was left to fend for herself in New York City.

Julia stayed in New York, where she waited tables at The Cutting Room and played small gigs in bars. She eventually developed a following in the New York music scene. In 2003, four years after the release of Figure 8, Julia released Julia Darling, which contains the song Photographs, presented here.

When I listen to the song, my mind races to try to find words to describe her voice—it has an ineffable beauty.

No one could ever accuse this eclectic artist of being derivative or borrowing too much from one any source, though she admits her Kate Bush influences — apparent on the brooding Crinolines and Waltzing.

InkBlot Magazine

Figure 8 is and remains one of the best and most under-appreciated albums that I can think of. Listen to Overloading God or Bulletproof Belief and you’ll be left wondering why lesser talents like Alanis Morisette were popular and this album never quite took off. Maybe Morisette had someone pushing her music to the radio stations (don’t tell me payola is dead), because they played Ironic and You Ought to Know incessantly until I was ready to do anything to just make it stop.

Although Figure 8 has been discontinued, you can click the Amazon link below and find a used copy at a very low price.

Julia’s MySpace page states that she’s recording her 3rd album with Ken Rich and Andrew Sherman.

• Julia Darling MySpace page

Click image to buy Figure 8 CD.

Click to buy Julia Darling CD.

Julia Darling mp3 download.

Leave a Comment » | independent music, Music, Rock music | Tagged: Julia Darling | Permalink
Posted by Marc Librescu

Eels – Novocaine For The Soul (1996)

March 14, 2009

everett

Eels is Mark Oliver Everett and the musicians he happens to be working with at any given moment. He released two solo albums under the name E, A Man Called E in 1992 and Broken Toy Shop the following year. The Eels debut album, Beautiful Freak, was released in 1996.

Mark is a complex individual, and a talented musician and writer. A large part of Eels music has focused on Mark’s struggles with his personal demons and the pain that resulted from dealing with family tragedies—including the death of his parents (his father was Hugh Everett, the physicist who created the many-worlds theory) and his sister’s suicide.

“I’m not trying to dazzle anyone with versatility or anything. I just do what’s in my heart basically.”

Mark Oliver Everett

"MC Honkey"

Mark isn’t averse to occasionally tormenting his live audiences. During one tour, the audience was treated to an opening performance by “MC Honky,” Mark’s alter ego, who is to Mark what Tony Clifton was to Andy Kaufman. An actor stood on the stage with a pipe in his mouth while recorded sounds played that had only a passing relationship with music. This went on for some 45 minutes.

On another tour, Mark’s pre-show torment consisted of showing a 50-minute Russian animated children’s film of talking clay animals (in Russian with no subtitles). The volume was turned way up to prevent the audience from ignoring the film. After being subjected to these two assaults, I decided to stop attending the band’s gigs.

The video presented above is for Novocaine for the Soul, the first single off Beautiful Freak. Great song, great video. I still have no idea how they did the effects for the video. I figure they used a crane and harnesses. But how did they do the shot of the guy standing on the wall?

I e-mailed the director, Mark Romanek, and asked if he’d say a few words about the making of the video for this blog, but he never replied. Hey, I’m just a guy with a little blog and he’s an important music video director.

A new Eels album, Hombre Lobo (Wolf Man), is due out in June.

moe

• Eels Official Site
• Eels On MySpace

Click CD to buy Meet the Eels: Essential Eels 1996-2006, Vol. 1.

Click book to buy Things the Grandchildren Should Know by Mark Oliver Everett.

1 Comment | Alternative Music, Music, Rock music | Tagged: Eels, Mark Oliver Everett | Permalink
Posted by Marc Librescu

The Cranberries – Zombie (1994)

March 7, 2009

www.marcsmusiclist.com The Cranberries exploded onto the music scene in 1993, with the release of the album Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? The band became one of the most popular bands of the 1990s and had a number of hit singles, including Linger, Dreams, and Zombie.

The band’s success was due to singer Dolores O’Riordan’s quirky vocal style, tight musicianship, and superior songwriting.

This song, Zombie, features a heavier guitar sound than the rest of the band’s material (contrast it with Dreams, for example). The song is about the political violence in Northern Ireland. The images in the video makes use of this imagery, mixed with scenes of singer O’Riordan covered in gold makeup and wearing an Egyptian headdress and eye makeup—a representation of the Egyptian goddess, Isis.

Isis

This is from Wikipedia:

Isis was a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife, patron of nature and magic; friend of slaves, sinners, artisans, the downtrodden, as well as listening to the prayers of the wealthy, maidens, aristocrats and rulers. Isis is the Goddess of motherhood and fertility.

Back to the music. Listen to the opening of the song. It starts with about 12 seconds of melodic chords that sound a little like All About Eve. Then the drums kick in, followed by the fuzz effected ominous buzz saw guitars. Fifteen seconds into the song, you already know you’re listening to something brilliant.

Here’s In The Clouds by All About Eve, which was released in 1987. Listen for similarities in the sound.

The Cranberries went on hiatus in 2003. Dolores O’Riordan has embarked on a solo career, although O’Riordan has stated that a Cranberries reunion will happen:

“Definitely down the road, but not right now because we’ve all got kids and babies. You can’t really do both – be on the road all the time and be a good parent. To bring kids into the world, you need to be there for them. I’m really enjoying taking things at my own pace.”

• The Official Community of The Cranberries
• Dolores O’Riordan — Official Site

Click album to buy STARS: The Best of the Cranberries, 1992-2002 CD from Amazon.com

Click album to buy Are You Listening? by Delores O'Riordan CD from Amazon.com

Leave a Comment » | Alternative Music, Music, Rock music | Tagged: All About Eve, The Cranberries | Permalink
Posted by Marc Librescu

Mott the Hoople – The Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll (1974)

February 28, 2009

Fronted by singer Ian Hunter, Mott the Hoople released their self-titled debut album in 1969. Although the album received some recognition, the following two albums sold poorly and the band found themselves on the verge of breaking up.

The band was revitalized after releasing the David Bowie-penned All The Young Dudes. The album of the same name made it to number 21 on the UK charts. Due to their evolving stage costumes, the band became identified with glam rock. The band grew in popularity and their next album, Mott, reached number 10 in the UK.

mth

1974 saw the release of two more albums, The Hoople, and Live. Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson left the band, while the remaining members of the band formed a new band called Mott, who released two forgettable albums before disbanding.

Ian Hunter went on to have a long-lived solo career. In January, he announced three Mott the Hoople reunion concerts in October at the Hammersmith Apollo. When the concert takes place, Ian will be 70-years-old.

The cut presented here, The Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll, is from the album The Hoople. The clip is from an appearance on Top of the Pops. Yeah, they’re lip-synching, but this is a kick-ass rock n’ roll song, so enjoy it.

• Mott the Hoople Website: www.mottthehoople.com
• Ian Hunter Website: www.ianhunter.com

Buy The Hoople CD from Amazon.com.

Buy Greatest Hits CD from Amazon.com.

Buy Diary of A Rock 'n' Roll Star by Ian Hunter

Leave a Comment » | Classic Rock, Glam Rock, Music, Rock music | Tagged: Ian Hunter, Mott the Hoople | Permalink
Posted by Marc Librescu

Röyksopp – What Else Is There? (2006)

February 20, 2009

Röyksopp is an electronic music duo based in Norway comprised of Torbjørn Brundtland and Svein Berge.

“What Else Is There?” appears on Röyksopp’s second album, The Understanding. The vocals are sung by Karin Dreijer Andersson of the electronica duo The Knife. The video for the song, by director Martin De Thurah, has model Marianne Schröder lip-synching to the lyrics, although Andersson makes a cameo appearance.

The song made it to #32 on the UK Singles Chart and reached #1 on the British Dance Chart.

The otherworldliness of the song and the accompanying video is extraordinary. It’s difficult to tell what the song’s really about—perhaps the woman singing is dead, killed in a car crash, as evidenced in this excerpt from the lyrics:

It was me on that road
But you couldn’t see me
Too many lights out, but nowhere near here

It was me on that road
Still you couldn’t see me
And then flashlights and explosions

The singer mentions being given “just one week,” which makes me wonder if she was allowed to come back to Earth for a short time. If so, the song is thematically similar to The Musical Box by Genesis. Here’s the description of the song from the album:

The musical box:

While Henry Hamilton-Smythe minor (8) was playing croquet with Cynthia Jane De Blaise-William (9), sweet smiling Cynthia raised her mallet high and gracefully removed Henry’s head. Two weeks later, in Henry’s nursery, she discovered his treasured musical box. Eagerly she opened it and as “Old King Cole” began to play, a small spirit-figure appeared. Henry had returned - but not for long, for as he stood into the room his body began ageing rapidly, leaving a child’s mind inside. A lifetime’s desires surged through him. Unfortunately the attempt to persuade Cynthia Jane to fulfill his romantic desire led his nurse to the nursery to investigate the noise. Instinctively she hurled the musical box at the bearded child, destroying both.

Here’s The Musical Box from a performance on Belgian TV.

You can hear musical similarities between What Else is There and Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush. I’ve included the video for Running Up That Hill (extended edition) below.

• Artist Website: http://royksopp.com

Buy The Understanding by Röyksopp on CD From Amazon.com

Buy What Else Is There CD Single From Amazon.com

Buy What Else Is There on CD Single From Amazon.com

Leave a Comment » | Electronic Music, Electronica | Tagged: Genesis, Kate Bush, Martin De Thurah, Röyksopp | Permalink
Posted by Marc Librescu

Catherine Wheel – Heal (1995)

February 13, 2009

catherine_wheel No one who has followed Catherine Wheel over the years will ever understand why they weren’t more popular. Maybe they were ahead of their time. Maybe there just aren’t that many people around anymore with good taste in music.

The band formed in 1990 in Great Yarmouth, England and disbanded in 2000 (officially, the band is on “hiatus.”). I was lucky enough to have seen them at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City in July of that year. Seven tracks from that show are included on a bonus disc on the limited edition of the CD, Wishville.

I think Like Cats and Dogs, the B-sides record, (is my favorite Catherine Wheel album), purely because it’s conceptually different from the studio records. All the songs were recorded very quickly and written very quickly. It just reveals a very interesting side to the band which I don’t think many people are that familiar with.

– Rob Dickinson

It’s not difficult to hear Catherine Wheel’s Pink Floyd influences. A cover of Wish You Were Here appears on the album Like Cats and Dogs. The art for every Catherine Wheel album other than Ferment was designed by Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis fame. Hipgnosis was the team of designers who created most of Pink Floyd’s album covers, as well as most of the notable album covers of the 20th century.

You can see the similarities in the cover art of Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma and Catherine Wheel’s Wishville.

Singer/guitarist Rob Dickinson continues the band’s sound in his solo album, Fresh Wine for the Horses. His live shows include many Catherine Wheel songs.

The anthemic Heal appears on the album Happy Days, while another version of the song, called Heal 2, can be found on Like Cats and Dogs, an album that contained B-sides and out-takes. A live version of the song is presented here.

• Rob Dickinson’s MySpace page:
http://www.myspace.com/robdickinson