Category Archives: Great Bands

December 14: London Calling by The Clash was released 35 years ago

London-calling

The ice age is coming, the sun is zooming in
Engines stop running and the wheat is growing thin
A nuclear error, but I have no fear
London is drowning-and I live by the river

I walked home from the local grocery store Ringdal exactly 35 years ago today with a plastic bag containing this double album by The Clash. It was priced as a single LP but had two vinyl records tucked inside. It was a frosty day, and when I was half way home I had to take off the plastic wrapping. To this day I can remember the smell, that wonderful smell of new vinyl on a frosty day.

The inner sleeves had “hand written” lyrics and it has to be the lyrics I’ve read most often. As a 13 year old boy from norway this was much more important in learning the english language than any class at school. Both historically and personally  The Clash, London Calling was massively crucial.

Clash-London-Calling-inner sleeves

Released 14 December 1979
Recorded August–September and November 1979, Wessex Sound Studios, London
Length 65:07
Label CBS, Epic, Legacy
Producer Guy Stevens and Mick Jones

London Calling is the third studio album by the English rock band The Clash. It was released in the United Kingdom on 14 December 1979 through CBS Records, and in the United States in January 1980 through Epic Records. The album represented a change in The Clash’s musical style, featuring elements of ska, funk, pop, soul, jazz, rockabilly, and reggae more prominently than in their previous two albums.

London Calling is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time. In 1987, it was ranked number 14 on Rolling Stone magazine’s “100 Best Albums of the Last Twenty Years”. Rolling Stone also ranked London Calling at number one on its 1989 list of the 100 best albums of the 80’s (it was released in December 1979 in the UK, but in January 1980 in the US, thus qualifying as an 80’s album for the US published magazine). In 1993, NME ranked the album at number six on its list of The Greatest Albums of the ’70s. Vibe magazine included the double album on its list of the 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century. Q magazine ranked London Calling at number four on its 1999 list of the 100 Greatest British Albums, and, in 2002, included the album in its list of the 100 Best Punk Albums. (wikipedia – read more)

London Calling (Official video):

From allmusic.com:

…London Calling is a remarkable leap forward, incorporating the punk aesthetic into rock & roll mythology and roots music. Before, the Clash had experimented with reggae, but that was no preparation for the dizzying array of styles on London Calling. There’s punk and reggae, but there’s also rockabilly, ska, New Orleans R&B, pop, lounge jazz, and hard rock; and while the record isn’t tied together by a specific theme, its eclecticism and anthemic punk function as a rallying call. While many of the songs — particularly “London Calling,” “Spanish Bombs,” and “The Guns of Brixton” — are explicitly political, by acknowledging no boundaries the music itself is political and revolutionary. But it is also invigorating, rocking harder and with more purpose than most albums… (read more)

Continue reading December 14: London Calling by The Clash was released 35 years ago

September 14: Mike Cooley is 48 Happy Birthday

mike-cooley

Mike Cooley, guitarist, songwriter and singer in one of our favorite bands Drive-By Truckers, was born 14 September 1966.

Happy Birthday, Mike Cooley!

Drive-By Truckers are an alternative country/Southern rock band based in Athens, Georgia, but two of the members (Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley) are originally from The Shoals region of Northern Alabama, and the band strongly identifies with Alabama. Their music uses three guitars as well as bass, drums, and now keyboards.

During a recent solo tour, the Drive by Truckers’ Mike Cooley stopped by the Fretboard Journal magazine offices to perform this tune. “Birthday Boy” originally appeared on the DBT’s album ‘The Big To-Do.’ Cooley also describes the unique guitar he’s playing, built by luthier Scott Baxendale.

Mike Cooley – Birthday Boy:

Drive-By Truckers was co-founded by Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood in Athens, Georgia, in 1996. The two had played in various other bands including Adam’s House Cat which was chosen as a top ten Best Unsigned Band by a Musician contest in the late 1980s. After the demise of Adam’s House Cat, Cooley and Hood performed as a duo under the name “Virgil Kane.” They eventually started a new band, “Horsepussy,” before splitting for a few years. It was during this split that Hood moved to Athens, Georgia and began forming what would become Drive-By Truckers. Cooley soon followed.

Continue reading September 14: Mike Cooley is 48 Happy Birthday

Look out for St. Paul and The Broken Bones

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Gritty with an elemental rhythm, tight-as-a-drumhead playing, and a profound depth of feeling: these are the promises of a great soul band. And St. Paul & The Broken Bones deliver on those promises.

Front man Paul Janeway’s handle “St. Paul” is a witty allusion to the vocalist’s grounding in the church. Like so many soul singers, Janeway, from Alabama, was raised on the gospel side, in a non-denominational, Pentecostal-leaning local church. Virtually no non-religious music could be heard in his devout household.

“The only secular music that I heard at all was a ‘70s group called the Stylistics, and Sam Cooke. That was about it. The rest of it was all gospel music. When I was about 10 years old, I was groomed to be a minister. My goal in life until I was about 18 years old was to be a preacher.”
– Paul Janeway

St. Paul & The Broken Bones – Don’t mean a thing:

Continue reading Look out for St. Paul and The Broken Bones

Look out for: Turnpike Troubadours

turnpike troubadours

Ok, I know, they released their first album in 2007 so they’re not exactly a new band. Well, they are new to me, and I reckon they should get a lot more attention than they have.

I discovered them through veteran singer/songwriter Mike McClure (I love his album, 50 Billion), I was wondering what he was doing and the name Turnpike Troubadours popped up when I looked around the web.

They have released three albums so far, all excellent. We did not include them on our year-end list for 2012, and I fear it is just as big a mistake as when we failed to include Johnathan Wilson on the 2011 list. Those things are bound to happen but it is really annoying when they do.

Gin, Smoke, Lies , great video/song beautiful shot but with a dark undertone:

They come from Oklahoma and they play a country tinged roots-rock. It sounds effortless and clever at the same time, kind of the  same way that Steve Earle or Townes Van Zandt sounds so easy at first and are so intricate and smart when you really listen.

Wikipedia has a short description of them, I guess it will expand in the near future… :

Turnpike Troubadours is an American Red Dirt group from Oklahoma composed of Evan Felker, R.C. Edwards, Kyle Nix, Ryan Engelman and Gabe Pearson. They are signed to Bossier City Records and have released three studio albums since 2007. Their 2012 album Goodbye Normal Street peaked at number 57 on the Billboard 200.

Turnpike Troubadours

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Afghan Whigs top 10 cover songs

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We saw Afghan Whigs at last years Oyafestival and of the 80 concerts I saw in 2012 I rated them on third place. What struck me was not only the great live versions of their own songs, but their very clever choices of cover songs.

afghan whigs 2012

And it was funky as hell!

I started to dig around the interweb and found a lot of very good cover versions done by Afghan Whigs, these are my ten favourites:

1.  See and don’t see – Afghan Whigs:

“Man, these words are kind of desperate and lonely, and they’re surrounded by this funky song. I might have to strip this one down someday.” – Greg Dulli

Originally by Marie Queenie Lyons:

2. Lovecrimes – Afghan Whigs (Frank Ocean cover):

“LoveCrimes came to me immediately. I had played around with that one maybe a week after I heard it. When I was looking to have something to play with the guys—we jam covers all the time…we had it down in half an hour. So that one was very, very natural.” – Greg Dulli (to AV Club)

3. True love travels on a gravel road (audio only) – Afghan Whigs (Nick Lowe):

4. Superstition (and Going to Town) – Afghan Whigs (Stevie Wonder):

5. Beast of Burden – Afghan Whigs (Rolling Stones):

Continue reading Afghan Whigs top 10 cover songs