Tag: rock

448. Quicksilver Messenger Service

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Episode 448 is QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE, one of the bands from the San Francisco scene alongside the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape. They had a couple minor radio hits but offer less than those bands. In fact, as I listen to more of the Greatest Era of Music (1965-69), I’ve soured on the San Francisco Sound. Too much noodling and despite the label it’s not actually psychedelic. 

Favorite album: Quicksilver Messenger Service

Favorite song: Pride of Man

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: avoid, unless you’re interested in who was smoking grass with Airplane

443. The Vines

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(October 2022) Episode 443 is THE VINES.  I see them as the garage band version of the classic rock-stomping Jet, both emerging out of Australia 2002.  The garage hooks were good but too few. They developed a lush, overproduced sound that presaged that of fellow Aussies Pond and Tame Impala.

Favourite album: Highly Evolved

Favourite song: Get Free

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: a few of their songs do slay

440. The Association

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(September 2022) Episode 440 is THE ASSOCIATION.  Sunshine pop with harmonies like a summer breeze. “Windy, “Cherish,” “Never My Love,” were AM rather than FM hits, putting them on the lighter side of my tastes of that time. But there are bits of psychedelia and baroque pop and it’s all 100% groovy.  I’m happy to include them in my Shrine to the Greatest Era of Music (1965-69).

Favorite album: Insight Out

Favorite song: Never My Love

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: a greatest hits album will do

438. New York Dolls

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(September 2002) Episode 438 is NEW YORK DOLLS.  Proto Punk + glam = should be in my wheelhouse.  But for some reason they’re not, and I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe it’s because Johansen annoys me. They were a phenomenon, that’s for sure.

Favorite album: New York Dolls

Favorite song: Trash

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: the first album is all you need to know

436. The Spencer Davis Group

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(September 2022) Episode 436 is THE SPENCER DAVIS GROUP.  They’re best known as the launching pad for teen phenom Steve Winwood and a couple classic rock radio standards (Gimme Some Lovin’ and I’m a Man). But that’s about it. They traveled a familiar path for second-tier British Invasion acts – R&B, a psychedelic album and some early 70s boogie rock before fading.

Favourite album: With Their New Face On

Favourite song: Gimme Some Lovin’

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: just those two songs, although devoted connoisseurs of Brit psychedelia may want to check out With Their New Face On

432. Budgie

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(August 2022) Episode 432 is BUDGIE. An early hard rock/heavy metal band from Wales. The clear influence is Black Sabbath, but some have made comparisons to early Rush, both as a power trio and for Burke Shelley’s high register vocals. Tony Bourge’s guitar provides fine hooks and crunch, combining for a great groove with Shelley’s bass and Ray Phillips’ drums. While not well known in the U.S., they proved influential to Metallica, Van Halen and others, not to mention all the NWOBHM bands and boogie rockers.

Favourite album: Budgie

Favourite song: Nude Disintegrating Parachutist Woman

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: any fan of heavy metal (or Sabbath in particular) should have Budgie’s first three albums

417. Jeff Beck

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(June 2022) Episode 417 is JEFF BECK. One of the three Gods of Guitar to emerge from the Yardbirds, he did not earn the same fame as Page or Clapton. This may be due to an idiosyncratic, haphazard output that veered in style from blues rock to jazz fusion, pop rock, rockabilly and modern rock, all of which provided platform for his guitar chops. His musical legacy, though, comes from the first two albums, with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, which laid the foundation for heavy metal and blues rock, and gave us some classic rock staples.  And of course from his much-admired innovations and talents on the six strings.

Favourite album: Truth

Favourite song: Beck’s Bolero

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: mostly for guitar-o-philes

409. Procol Harem

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(May 2022) Episode 409 is PROCOL HAREM. You know them from their first single “A Whiter Shade of Pale” but they were more than a one-hit wonder. The first three albums, with Robin Trower’s fuzzy guitar and Matthew Fisher’s reverberating organ, are a peak late-60s mix of quasi-psychedelia and baroque rock. They are also considered one of the first prog-rock bands. Vocalist and pianist Gary Brooker, with a voice that is the love child of Steve Winwood and Pete Townsend, is the constant from the beginning though a long run of avoidable albums.

Favourite album: Procol Harem

Favourite song: She Wandered Through the Garden Fence

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: relevant for a deeper dive into late 60s British rock, as well as those interested in the roots of prog rock

405. Happy Mondays

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(May 2022) Episode 405 is the HAPPY MONDAYS.  Arguably the most Madchester sound within the Madchester scene, with plenty of grooves and rave beats.  But they lacked the melodic charm of peers the Stone Roses and Charlatans.

Favourite album: Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches

Favourite song: Bob’s Yer Uncle

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: worth a listen to see what the Madchester thing was all about

404. Death

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(May 2022) Episode 404 is DEATH (the proto-punk band, not the death metal band).  My primary interest is in their role as a proto-punk band, although they didn’t make a mark outside of their native Detroit until rediscovered decades later. Also unusual in that they were a trio of Black brothers who started out in funk but got turned on to hard rock, with political and later Christian themes. Their sound is like mixing MC5, Love, the White Stripes and Glass Harp in a blender. 

Favorite album: …For the Whole World to See

Favorite song: Politicians In My Eyes

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: only of interest to those exploring the roots of punk