Listen To This...

Reviewing the Essential


Recommended by:
Amanda Jones

Babes in Toyland - Fontanelle
www.myspace.com/babesintoyland

Concrete Blonde - Still in Hollywood
www.concreteblonde.com

Patsy Cline - The Gold Album
www.patsycline.com

The Go-Go’s - Beauty and the Beat
www.thegogos.com

This Wednesday night (Feb. 7th), at Kiss or Kill, is The All Girl Fronted Rock Riot. Paying homage to a night of girls fronting rock bands, I wanted to come up with some equally fantastic albums that I consider essential when listening to women who rock!

Narrowing a list to 3 bands/albums was time consuming. How do you pick only 3 albums? So I cheated and added one more and managed to find a way to enjoy myself while thinking of all the amazing women that have contributed to music in the last 100 years. This is my list of delicious albums I have listened to repeatedly on many an evening. Press play and be ready to jump into action and kick some ass, or at the very least cry yourself to sleep after a bad day. I’ve been lucky that I’ve seen all but one of these artists play. Unfortunately at this point, I don’t think you can see any incarnations of these bands any longer – so buy the album. Take the time and listen – it’s well worth the $10.

The first album that immediately sprang to mind was Babes in Toyland’s 1992 release, Fontanelle. The pace of this album is frenetic at the very least. A three piece band that could whip anyone’s ass into shape with biting lyrics, edgy vocals, and a guitar sound so violent I think at times the paint in my bedroom has been chipped away year after year listening to this album. Kat Bjeland, Lori Barbero, and Maureen Herman were a refreshing change from the 90’s boy rock that consumed the air waves. They were adorable and fierce rolled into a sonic package of rock. I’m not sure if this album was deemed punk upon its release but it definitely seemed punk to me. Listen to “Bruise Violet”, “Right Now”, or “Handsome and Gretel” and try not to call this punk. Each song is short, sweet and in your face with Kat Bjeland’s voice serving as a pissed off woman siren. If you haven’t heard it and you want to hear some serious female driven punk rock pick this up.

The next artist is Concrete Blonde who has put out many albums ranging from the late 1980’s till as recently as 2004. I had the pleasure of seeing this band a few times and more importantly witnessing Johnette Napolitano rip apart a stage not only on bass but with a voice that most women musicians would kill for. I’m so happy that I did. While they did have a string of hits that actually made it to the air waves they also had a collection of gems that were never heard on radio. If it’s possible - I say pick up all of their albums, but if it’s a matter of purchasing a collection of theirs (and they do have a few greatest hits) I would say pick up: Still in Hollywood (1994) It has the Leonard Cohen cover of “Everybody Knows”, an acoustic version of “Joey”, a cover of Hendrix’s “Little Wing” that rivals any cover of that song I’ve heard and the title track “Still in Hollywood”. This is probably some of the greatest rock I’ve ever heard and still to this day remains ageless.

My next recommendation is to pick up a Patsy Cline album if you don’t own one. Patsy Cline is to country what Billie Holiday and Nina Simone are to jazz and what Chryssie Hynde has been to punk. The woman was, and continues to be, a pioneer in music so many years after her death. While for a lot of people this may seem incredibly outdated – she died in 1963 – her music still resonates deeply with many. She managed to sing what were considered men’s songs, with more passion than most of her male counterparts at the time. Patsy Cline rivaled Hank Williams in the way of lonesome blues. There are so many of Patsy’s albums you can purchase, all containing something beautiful and sad, but if you can, grab the Gold Album (2005). There are the usual favorites, like “Crazy”, “Walking after Midnight”, and “Sweet Dreams” but it also has a cover of Hank Williams, “Your Cheating Heart” and “She’s Got You”. This is the kind of album you can play from start to finish and not be disappointed – it doesn’t miss a beat. Plus, all the heartbroken of the world unite whenever this album is played – at least that’s what I’ve been told.

Finally pick up The Go-Go’s Beauty and The Beat (1981). Not because I was obsessed with this band as a child and sang in the mirror to The Go-Go’s everyday in my tiny bedroom the minute I got home from school. BUT, pick it up because in 1981 this was the first real cross between punk and pop that managed to infiltrate America and sell a ton of records. Plus they are from Los Angeles and played with all the great punk bands like Black Flag and The Germs - and middle-America were none the wiser!!! This album opened the door for females everywhere that loved punk and pop. The Go-Go’s found a way to blend the two genres effortlessly and came up with “Our Lips Are Sealed”, “We Got the Beat”, “This Town” and “Lust to Love” and this was only the first album. Indeed, God Bless the Go-Go’s and every VH1 behind the music about those girls!!!

Happy Shopping and See you tonight!!!

xox
Amanda Jones

Listen to This!

Reviewing the Essential


Ghost Mice Debt of the Dead

Recommended by McBride


The latest disc I've come across that I would recommend to anyone is "Debt of the Dead" by Ghost Mice.

I discovered Ghost Mice last year at "The Fest" in Gainesville, Florida. The exports of G-ville that you may have heard of include Against Me, Hot Water Music, Less Than Jake and Tom Petty-- Okay, minor gap between that last one, but true none the less. I love that down-home-feel punk rock that comes out of that corner of the world; perhaps we just lean towards what we grew up on or perhaps it was just a happy coincidence that I was born a couple hours south of there, either way I love that swampy punk sound that G-ville is famous for the same way I love lightning, afternoon thunderstorms and air that is just wet.



The year before I was confined to a single little sweaty little venue running a camera (as I was doing this past year). But I got to see some of the most amazing live bands I've seen in ages. I got to see Ventura's own Glass & Ashes a whole continent away from their home of sunny beaches, audio-ly peal the faces off the crowd. I got to see Baroness, one of the kings of the new Southern drudge metal, engulfed by their own audience. I saw at least 3 two-piece acts that sounded thicker than any 5 man punk act I've seen on the Sunset Strip.



But The Fest's ability to attract these amazing bands meant that it was growing. This year they were up to six venues and one of them was the park amphitheater in the middle of downtown. The Fest itself boasted a pretty wide variety of acts. But this was Gainesville so running down the center of the roster was a strong axis that went from the hard and mind-bending post-hardcore to alt country. Fun thing was the same guys getting down on a wood porch stage in the afternoon were the ones you saw screaming unrecognizably into a distorted mic the night before.



Needless to say they had to pick wisely which bands to put in the enclosed sweaty little theaters and which they let loose on the public park. The park was tough to set up a camera crew for so they just sent me there to "Pick up this band Ghost Mice. They're kind of interesting". I left a show that consisted of a few friends' bands for the unknown that was Ghost Mice.



By the time I got out to the park in the middle of town, people were already there and waiting. Again: never heard of them before. But they had a lot of people. That too I thought nothing of. "They're all just the gutter punks and under-agers who couldn't get tickets to the real shows," I figured. Up on the stage the sound man had set up 2 area mics. This is what you put up when all you're doing is making something louder, not plugging in any instruments, no sound work, tuning or boards... not really. And up walked a guy with a bad devil-lock/krishna look and cute blonde gal, Hannah, who's smile would've been too big for her face. He had a guitar, she a violin.
They played and it was obvious. I thought nothing of it. It just seemed right. They had a crowd of a couple hundred kids many of who by the second song had camped out on the stage, sitting on the monitors. Everyone seemed to really know and love this duo; more than even they realized. The guy, Chris, made a joke about how they always play living rooms. Their name Ghost Mice was the quietest thing they could think of. But their songs connected to each person individually and enough individuals make a crowd.



A few songs into the set they played a tune titled "Up the Punks". "Up the Punks" is a great song that demonstrates the amazing ability Ghost Mice have in their song writing to be very critical and have the punk attitude but yet very encouraging and uplifting. It's an anthem song about how the youth of our rock'n'roll subculture really have done some good things and when it got to the refrain everyone sang along. I put it together then that everyone wasn't here because they couldn't get into the other shows, the really were here to see this band.



And you can't help but tap your feet and remember the lyrics of the music. They sang about getting lost in Europe, wishing they were billy goats because money sucks, and perhaps the finest work of songwriting I've come across in, well-- forever, their recount of forging coupons to get free pizza and the gut-wrenching path that lead them down called "Free Pizza For Life". By the end of that song everyone was shouting "Free Pizza For Life!" I'd never heard the song before and I was shouting "Free Pizza For Life!" I was worried about the camera audio and I was shouting "Free Pizza For Life!" If you get their split with it on there you'll yell "Free Pizza For Life!"



After the show I had to buy what I could. With only $10 to my name I picked up a split and a full length. Both are great. But if you can only get one, get the full length because it's all them. They have the engrained passion and message to appease even the most callous of social rebels and they have the genius melodies to make my mom feel warm and fuzzy and the song writing skills to suck anyone in.



The full length I ended up with was the disc I recommend to you today, "Debt of the Dead". The songs demonstrate all the kudos I gush on them here. The only thing I didn't like is that they did not record it live and their work is so f-ing human that not recording it live, no matter how good of a job they did in the studio, did shave a little something off. But that said, this is still an album that I could recommend to ANYONE. Whether you came for the folk stylings or the guy screaming bloody murder, this band and their album will work for you and were strangely at home were I discovered them nestled shyly between the two at a music fest down in the swamp.



You can get the disc from Plan-It-X Records at www.plan-it-x.com, PO box 3521 Bloomington, IN, 47402.





*You can also find Ghost Mice on myspace at www.myspace.com/ghostmice1

Listen to This

REVIEWING THE ESSENTIAL

James Brown Live at the Apollo

Recommended by: Joe Dana


There is an old question about what five records would you bring with you on a desert island. For a long time, I only had Tom Waits’ Nighthawks at The Diner and the Stooges’ Funhouse record on that special list. I have several records in my collection and many are my favorites but there are special qualities that an album must have to make it to the desert island list. For one thing, I can’t ever get sick of it. Another, it has to stir up several different emotions when I listen to it.

About a year or two ago, I bought James Brown’s Live at the Apollo record. It stayed in my car’s CD player for a good two months. The album made me laugh, feel heartache and most importantly made me want to dance. I finally decided that it would be an album that would be added to that exclusive desert island list.

This is early James Brown in the year 1962. This is years before “I Feel Good (I got you)”, “Papa’s got a Brand New Bag” and “Sex Machine”. This is back when James’ biggest songs were “Night Train” and “Please Please Please” If you ever pick up a James Brown retrospective, the studio versions of these songs seem tame compared to his later work. If you pick up the live versions off this album, the songs have been sped up almost triple time.

The album begins with the famous James Brown intro. There are hardly any breaks in between songs except to introduce the next song with a few bars from the horn section of James Brown’s backing band, the Famous Flames. You could compare it to the way the Dwarves or the Ramones play. You’ve heard of blitzkrieg bop, this is blitzkrieg funk.

Then it comes to an abrupt stop for a 10 minute long song called “I Lost Someone” where James seems to cry his heart out. He gets a bit of the infamous Apollo theater audience participation on the record too. You can hear a woman yelling that her friend lost someone just like James. You can hear James instructing the audience, “Don’t say ‘ow!’, say ‘OWWWW!’

Right when the audience is at its most vulnerable state, James kicks into a seven song medley at breakneck speed starting with “Please Please Please”. He finally closes with his instrumental, “Night Train” which is played so fast, it sounds like a different song altogether.

This album is punk, funk and soul. If the only James Brown you know is played during sports blooper reels and covered by funk cover bands, you need to pick up this record. It is only then that you will truly understand why this man will forever be remembered as the Godfather of Soul.