// Category Archive for: Music

Laetitia Sadier, Silencio

By Jemiah Jefferson

The chanteuse of compassionate socialism hasn’t changed much since the earliest days of legendary agit-pop group Stereolab, and this is a very good thing; Laetitia Sadier‘s cool, clear-eyed voice, alternately crisp and authoritative and velvety-dreamy, is one of the greatest resources in music. As a songwriter, too, she only develops further complexities while keeping the core characteristics intact. Sadier has always created intensely listenable tunes to transmit messages of the political and the personal, and Silencio is no exception. (more…)

All You Got To Do Is Swing: Joe Jackson’s The Duke

By Cait Brennan

From the very beginning of his professional career, Joe Jackson has been one of the most driven, creative, and eclectic artists in popular music. His debut album, Look Sharp, was one of the New Wave’s first smash hits, and over his first three albums Jackson and his band ruled the airwaves with catchy, intelligent pop with strong punk, reggae and pub-rock influences. (more…)

Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman Story

By Chelsea Spear

Photo © Mark Ostow

Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, Mark Sandman cut a wide swath through the Boston music scene. His first band, Treat Her Right, scored a local radio hit with the deadpan, eerie single “I Think She Likes Me.” The various bands with whom Sandman played—most notably Supergroup, Candybar, and Morphine—played two sets a night at the shoebox-shaped bar Plough and Stars. Even as Morphine ascended to a renowned trio with a devoted following, Sandman could be found playing at the annual Central Square World’s Fair, talking with elementary school classes about his handmade musical instruments, converting his loft apartment into a recording studio, or just hanging out in the back booth at the Middle East nightclub. His sudden, tragic death in Italy in 1999 left a huge hole, both in the music world where he made his mark, and within the Boston arts community. (more…)

Thoughts On: The Band, STAGE FRIGHT

By Paul Casey

Part three in a continuing series on THE BAND’s discography.

To read the whole series, go here.

“Now deep in the heart of a lonely kid
Who suffered so much for what he did
Gave this plough boy his fortune and fame
And since that day he ain’t been the same.

See the man with the stage fright
Just standing up there to give it all his might
And he got caught in the spotlight
But when it gets to the end
He wants to start all over again.”
—From “Stage Fright”

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Looking Back: 80 Mod, Freakbeat & Swinging London Nuggets—Various Artists

By Noreen Sobczyk

This eighty-track British compilation (save for a scant few Australian tracks), includes many songs making their first appearance on CD. Also included are a handful of previously unissued tunes (that were lingering about on reel to reel), from groups such as A Wild Uncertainty, Tony Rivers & The Castaways, The Thoughts, The Trekkas, and The Knave. The Looking Back compilation also boasts appearances by future rock stars such as Yes’s Steve Howe when he was in The In Crowd; AC/DC’s Bon Scott as member of The Valentines; and even Motorhead’s Lemmy (Kilmister) in his early combo The Rockin’ Vickers.

The discs serve as a good option for lovers of sixties British music unwilling to pay collector 7″ vinyl prices. Sure, there are Mod purists who will only spin these songs in clubs on vinyl, but for those of us content just to have the music, or to put on a CD at a party and let it roll without the fuss of compiling the tracks—this is a gem. There are only a few few songs that might prompt one to skip forward to the next offering, but none go so far as to risk clearing the dance floor.

If you’re a casual listener looking for an introduction to Mod music, this may not be your bag, but in researching a larger and earlier box set from Universal Music Archives titled The In Crowd, I found it selling at over $100 for used copies. That said, the tracks included herein may not boast names recognizable to the casual listener, but it doesn’t take an archivist to recognize this little set is worth the price of admission.

Looking Back: 80 Mod, Freakbeat & Swinging London Nuggets was released by Cherry Red on November 21, 2011 and is available to order from their website.

Keep The Beat: The Very Best of The English Beat

By Danny R. Phillips

Shout! Factory announced recently that they would be re-issuing the entire catalog of material record by English ska/toasting masters The English Beat. Included in this is every album (that’s three studio albums and two of bonus materials) and a CD/DVD of the band playing the US Festival in May of 1983.

That much material could be a lot to swallow by anyone other then the most fanatical and hardcore of English Beat devotees. Well, for those in the world who do not want to dish out $34 for the box set (that is still a killer deal), Shout! Factory will be releasing a concise greatest hits package, Keep the Beat: The Very Best of The English Beat, as a complement to the five-disc wonder. (more…)

The Hives, Lex Hives

By Julie Finley

What can be said about The Hives that hasn’t already been said? If you are reading this, this is probably not the first time you’ve ever heard of them—and it won’t be the last! If you like them at all, you pretty much know what you’re in for, and what you’re in for is FUN! The word “fun” describes The Hives very accurately (much more so than that lame band actually known as Fun). They aren’t a band that you listen to for technical or lyrical prowess (and I’m not discrediting their musicianship or lyrics by saying that, either). The Hives are a band that you like because they achieve the goal of making the listener happy! The Hives aren’t a band you sit around listening to whilst brooding, because if you are brooding whilst listening to The Hives, you need many MANY years of therapy!

With that said, how does The Hives latest release, Lex Hives, measure up? I would have to say extremely well, and on par with what you’ve come to expect from them. Keeping up their formula without succumbing to industry pressure to change is challenging, but the only thing they’ve changed is their attire.
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Thoughts On: The Band, THE BAND

By Paul Casey

Part two in a continuing series on THE BAND’s discography.

To read the whole series, go here.

Photo © Elliott Landy, 1969

Recorded primarily in a Los Angeles house that once belonged to Sammy Davis Jr., THE BAND’s second, self-titled LP, is considered to be their masterpiece. It is the album on which the legend of THE BAND was built. Unlike Music From Big Pink, Robbie Robertson gets a writing credit on every song, collaborating with Richard Manuel on three tracks, and Levon Helm on one. It does not have the diversity of their debut, but instead comes their most cohesive work.

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Assemblog: June 29, 2012

Image from The Art Of The Title

New this week on Popshifter: an attempt to answer the question regarding sex, violence, and horror in movies: Are we short-charging the teens?; reviews of new releases by Jesca Hoop, DIIV, Ty Segall Band, and Neneh Cherry & The Thing; in praise of singer/songwriter Gillian Welch; and a look at a 1974 John Lee Hooker concert now on DVD.

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John Lee Hooker, Cook With The Hook: Live 1974 DVD

By Jemiah Jefferson

One of the rare live video recordings of blues legend John Lee Hooker was filmed with three cameras at a festival in Massachusetts called “Down in the Dumps,” the second in a hoped-for series of concerts on the site of a city landfill area, and shown on local access television in 1974. Thank heavens that this footage didn’t suffer the fate of so much video tape of the era, and survived to the 21st century to released on a bare-bones DVD called Cook With The Hook: Live 1974. Additional material might have been nice, but we must assume there isn’t any, besides what’s on the explanatory, single-sheet disk insert.
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