Category: Episodes

560. The Nice

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(April 2024) Episode 560 is THE NICE. There are some bands only worth knowing as the launching pad for a famous artist. The Nice is one of those. This is where Keith Emerson got his start performing wizardry and violence on his Hammond organ before doing the same with Lake and Palmer. Mixing rock, classical and jazz themes, the Nice helped introduced prog rock, so there is some historical interest. Apparently they got a cult following as a wild live act, although the appeal doesn’t transfer to the recordings, which suffer from weak vocals. Fun fact: Emerson’s trick of sticking a knife between keys to sustain the notes came from roadie Lemmy (yes, him) who gave him a Hitler Youth knife for that purpose. Also, they started out as the backing band for P.P. Arnold, a former back-up singer for Ike and Tina Turner who moved to London for a solo career.

Favourite album: Nice

Favourite song: Rondo

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: For prog rock enthusiasts only.

559. Redd Kross

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(April 2024) Episode 559 is REDD KROSS. They provided a combination of hard guitars and melodic songcraft that filled the gap between 1970s power pop and the 1990s pop punk and power pop revival. LA-area brothers Jeff and Steven McDonald started out with a punk sound but added the melodies by the late 1980s. By its label I should be all over this, but I found the sum less than the parts. Generally their songs lack the hooks that I look for in power pop songs, although their two 2010s albums did do a better job at that.

Favorite album: Researching the Blues

Favorite song: The Nu Temptations

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: The two 2010s albums, but I suspect that true fans will point to their 1980 EP.

558. The Animals

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(April 2024) Episode 558 is THE ANIMALS. I started to write about them as a second-tier British Invasion band but then realized that’s an American-centric view. In the UK they developed a fiery presence on UK R&B scene. But just as I wrote about how the Searchers music proved the magic of the Beatles within Merseybeat, the Animals demonstrate how superior the Rolling Stones were among the blues-based UK bands. The original Animals played with gusto, but they lacked song-writing chops; their main four hits on U.S. radio (“House of the Rising Sun,” “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place,” “It’s My Life,” and “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”) were composed by others. They fell apart early, and in 1966 Eric Burdon formed another group with his name up front. To me this is the most interesting period, as the albums have a psychedelic and experimental approach, providing the minor hits “San Francisco Nights” and “Sky Pilot.” Bottom line, Burdon’s voice never appealed to me.

Favourite album: The Twain Shall Meet

Favourite song: House of the Rising Sun

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: A great hits LP is enough.

557. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

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(April 2024) Episode 557 is GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA PALESTRINA, one of the most acclaimed composers of the 16th century (and one of the few I’ve ever heard of). He is also the second oldest composer in the project. Not surprisingly, almost all of his hundreds of compositions are religious, and he is most famous for his 100+ masses (this was a looooong episode). Regardless of whether the message speaks to you, this is beautiful polyphonic music that should stir any soul. There are several ways his compositional style influenced those that followed, include Bach more than a century later, but I’m too much of a dummy to understand how. I just like the angelic voices.

Favorite piece: Missa Papae Marcelli

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: TBH it all sounds the same to me, so try the piece above and go from there.

556. Ohio Players

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(March 2024) Episode 556 is OHIO PLAYERS. I first encountered them through their erotic album covers, causing me to linger longer in the “O” section of the record store. But it wasn’t until later that I caught up to the music, although I knew “Love Rollercoaster” from its ubiquity. Their roots go back to the 1950s, but they hit their stride and fame with a series of albums in the mid-1970s of peak funk and sexy soul – music that very much complements those album covers. While I find better funk and more stirring soul elsewhere, the Ohio Players’ combo makes this iconic 1970s music. Comparatively, it’s close to what Earth Wind & Fire were doing at the time minus the mysticism and polyrhythms.

Favorite album: Fire

Favorite song: Fire

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Any of their 1972-75 albums (from “Pleasure” to “Honey”) are a good immersion in sensual 70s funk.

555. The Neville Brothers

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(March 2024) Episode 555 is THE NEVILLE BROTHERS. This logiclly follows my recent episode on The Meters, which featured Art and Cyril Neville. In 1977 they joined Aaron and Charles to form this eponymously named unit. Each brother in this talented family had their own musical careers long before, during and after. But assembled together they created an iconic group with New Orleans-flavored funk, soul and R&B. This episode covers their studio albums, which weren’t many, and a few live performances, but it still feels incomplete given the span of each brother’s work. I’ve always loved Aaron’s fluttering tenor and his classic mid-60s song “Tell It Like It Is.”

Favorite album: Fiyo on the Bayou

Favorite song: Yellow Moon

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Find some of their live concert performances, which show the energy and interaction.

554. Napalm Death

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(March 2024) Episode 554 is NAPALM DEATH, pioneers of the “grindcore” subgenre, a mix of hardcore punk and extreme metal. But to my unsophisticated ear, this is indistinguishable from death metal, with the cookie monster growl and thunder kicks. Detectable punk elements include their anarcho-political lyrics (they cover “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” in fine form) and brevity of song: the Guinness Book of World Records awards Napalm Death for having the shortest song ever recorded, “You Suffer,” which clocks in at a little more than a second. They went through several lineup changes, and the early few albums are mixed rawer than what came later. But the pace and fury is consistent from their notable first (1987) to the latest (2020). As I’ve said before, I’m attracted to music at the extremes, and Napalm Death certainly offers that.

Favourite album: Order of the Leech

Favourite song:  Cesspits

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: Do it. Even if you know you’ll hate it, put it on and force yourself to experience it.

553. Ricky Skaggs

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(March 2024) Episode 553 is RICKY SKAGGS. I never listened to Ricky Skaggs (much less any country) back in the day but I did have a sense he was different than his peers who were playing hot country in arenas and Super Bowl halftime shows. True. Throughout his career he’s been a traditionalist, primarily in bluegrass. And I like bluegrass. He was a child phenom who connected early with legends Earl Scruggs and Ralph Stanley. Mandolin is his main instrument but he can pay almost anything, and his voice is the high tenor characteristic of the bluegrass genre. His recordings, particularly for a long stretch in the 1980s-90s, ventured into other styles of country — not all of it is my cup of tea – but never too far from traditional roots.

Favourite album: Ridin’ that Midnight Train

Favourite song: Bluegrass Rules!

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Start with the bluegrass oriented stuff, including tributes to Bill Monroe and such. The Instrumentals album is a fun listen. I love turbo-speed bluegrass pieces.

552. The Searchers

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(March 2024) Episode 552 is THE SEARCHERS. A lingering question is whether there was something inherently special about the Merseybeat sound,* of which the Beatles were the biggest and best example, or whether the Beatles’ fame is the thing that brought attention to the other Merseybeat bands. One such band is the Searchers, who emerged from the same town at the same time with a very similar sound. Their most famous track on this side of the pond was “Needles and Pins” (ph: needles and pinsah) (co-written by Sonny Bono!), which introduced the jangle guitar sound soon made famous by the Byrds (note the nearly identical guitar riffs that open “Needles and Pins” and the Byrds “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better”). There are a few catchy pop tunes in a here but they suffer the unavoidable comparison with their Best Ever peers, and their sound was soon made obsolete by the R&B-based London bands and gritty freakbeat groups.

Favourite album: It’s The Searchers

Favourite song: When You Walk In The Room

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: A greatest hits disc is more than enough.

* music historians have noted that the fact that Liverpool’s was a port city meant that early rock and roll records from America made it to that city before others in the UK, which supports the first hypothesis

551. The Meters

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(February 2024) Episode 551 is THE METERS. This funked me up. This New Orleans set didn’t have the flash or flame of funkmasters like Brown or Clinton. Instead it was just pure unadorned funk, a foursome of guitar, drums, bass and keyboard that delivered a simple yet delicious groove. Instrumentals only on the first two albums. By the third album they got more sophisticated, adding horns and vocals. The opening song from their first album, “Cissy Strut,” was featured in Jackie Brown and other movies. The band’s leader was Art Neville, who later joined his brothers to form one of New Orleans’ iconic musical groups. This is fun listening.

Favorite album: Rejuvenation

Favorite song: Funky Miracle

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: Try the first two albums of bare-bones instrumental funk, and next the middle four of a fuller sounds, and pick your style. No need to bother with the last two that tend toward smooth soul and disco. They do get an award for honesty-in-admitting-you’re-following-trends by naming the first song off their 1976 album “Disco Is the Thing Today.”