Trouser Press Tuesday: BLACKBIRD

BlackBird (Iloki) 1988
BlackBird (Iloki) 1989
BlackBird (Ger. Fundamental) 1991
BlackBird (Scotti Bros.) 1992

After leading the leftist agit-punk Dils and cowpunk-pioneering Rank and File, California brothers Chip and Tony Kinman (originally of the punk Dils) reinvented themselves as BlackBird, a brooding duo whose clattery low-tech electro-garage sound and dystopic lyrical attitude presaged some of what would come to be known as industrial music. But, while most such combos generally attach a mechanical sound to equally machinelike compositions, BlackBird uses its technology as a counterpoint to its consistently well-crafted songs, which do not stray so far from the brothers’ punk and country roots(…)

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Since 1974, Trouser Press has been covering the Other Music beat and currently resides on the web at www.trouserpress.com

I will be posting a random link from Trouser Press on every Tuesday until I just flat out forget.

Trouser Press Tuesday: GARY LUCAS

GARY LUCAS
Gods and Monsters (Enemy) 1992
Skeleton at the Feast (Enemy) 1992
Bad Boys of the Arctic (Enemy) 1994
KILLER SHREWS
The Killer Shrews (Enemy) 1993

Gary Lucas has toured Europe with Leonard Bernstein playing his Mass and was a member of Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band in its final recording lineup (on Ice Cream for Crow, after a cameo on the previous Doc at the Radar Station). He has produced albums for eclecticist Peter Gordon and jazz saxist Tim Berne and is a mainstay of Manhattan’s downtown avant-rock scene. He also joined Joan Osborne on her Relish album and co-wrote songs that appeared on Jeff Buckley’s Grace. Most of which efforts manifest the salient fact here: he’s one mutha of a guitarist(…)

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Since 1974, Trouser Press has been covering the Other Music beat and currently resides on the web at www.trouserpress.com

I will be posting a random link from Trouser Press on every Tuesday until I just flat out forget.

Trouser Press Tuesday: Veil

VEIL
Surrender (UK Clay) 1985

Attempting a gothic sound comparable to mid-period Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bryan Gregory’s first post-Cramps project, the aptly titled Beast, was nothing like his old group. The Beast’s three 45s in the early-’80s were of mixed quality, and Gregory soon faded into obscurity. His three bandmates, however, moved to the UK and forged ahead as the Veil, releasing an underrated album of dark poptones like “Manikin,” “Twist” (both singles) and “Love in a Dying World” (a Beast remake). Vocalist Andrella’s wispy voice and quasi-Egyptian shtick manage to charm even when some of the material does not.(…)

Since 1974, Trouser Press has been covering the Other Music beat and currently resides on the web at www.trouserpress.com

I will be posting a random link from Trouser Press on every Tuesday until I just flat out forget.

Trouser Press Tuesday: Veil

I’ve been slacking and forgot to do one of these last week. Sorry ’bout that!
Here it is:

VEIL
Surrender (UK Clay) 1985

Attempting a gothic sound comparable to mid-period Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bryan Gregory’s first post-Cramps project, the aptly titled Beast, was nothing like his old group. The Beast’s three 45s in the early-’80s were of mixed quality, and Gregory soon faded into obscurity. His three bandmates, however, moved to the UK and forged ahead as the Veil, releasing an underrated album of dark poptones like “Manikin,” “Twist” (both singles) and “Love in a Dying World” (a Beast remake). Vocalist Andrella’s wispy voice and quasi-Egyptian shtick manage to charm even when some of the material does not.

Since 1974, Trouser Press has been covering the Other Music beat and currently resides on the web at www.trouserpress.com

I will be posting a random link from Trouser Press on every Tuesday until I just flat out forget.

Trouser Press Tuesday: The 4 Skins

4 SKINS
The Good, the Bad & the 4 Skins (UK Secret) 1982
A Fistful of 4 Skins (UK Syndicate) 1983
From Chaos to 1984 (UK Syndicate) 1984
A Few 4 Skins More Volume 1 (UK Link) 1987
A Few 4 Skins More Volume 2 (UK Link) 1987
The Wonderful World of the 4 Skins: the Best of the 4 Skins (UK Link) 1987
Live and Loud!! (UK Link) 1989

One of the mainstays of second-wave Brit-punk, London’s harsh and serious 4 Skins — not as intense as Crass, but far more earnest than Sham 69 — endured major lineup changes (they went through four lead singers including, at one point, the quartet’s manager) long enough to record three albums in the early ’80s.

The studio side of The Good, the Bad & the 4 Skins starts out with a delightful ska-beat tune (“Plastic Gangsters”) and then turns angry skinhead generic for shoutalongs like “Justice” and “Yesterdays Heroes.” The seven-song live side is equally forbidding (Panther’s vocals are especially unpleasant)(…)

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Since 1974, Trouser Press has been covering the Other Music beat and currently resides on the web at www.trouserpress.com

I will be posting a random link from Trouser Press on every Tuesday until I just flat out forget.

Trouser Press Tuesday: AFRIKA BAMBAATAA & THE JAZZY 5

AFRIKA BAMBAATAA & THE JAZZY 5
“Jazzy Sensation” (Tommy Boy) 1981
AFRIKA BAMBAATAA & SOULSONIC FORCE
“Looking for the Perfect Beat” (Tommy Boy) 1982
“Planet Rock” (Tommy Boy) 1982
“Renegades of Funk” (Tommy Boy) 1983
Planet Rock — The Album (Tommy Boy) 1986
“Return to Planet Rock” (York’s) 1990
TIME ZONE
“The Wildstyle” (Celluloid) 1983
“World Destruction” (Celluloid) 1984
(…)
Bronx DJ-turned-hip-hop-godfather Bambaataa not only created the record that thrust beatbox electro-funk into the ’80s and brought Kraftwerk onto the dancefloor, he has made pioneering sides with numerous performers and established himself as a major figure in contemporary music. Working mainly in the 12-inch format, Bam’s ascent began with a routine boast rap, “Jazzy Sensation,” but got into gear with “Planet Rock,” the Arthur Baker-produced (and co-written, with the band and John Robie) explosion of scratch cuts, electronic gimmickry, processed vocals and solid-state rhythms. (Both tracks were later compiled on the Tommy Boy label retrospective, Greatest Beats.) “Looking for the Perfect Beat” is even better, with Baker mostly soft-pedaling the monolithic pounding in favor of a skittish electronic metronome and tacking on fancier effects, vocals and mix tricks to create an ultra-busy urban symphony. The mega-rhythmic “Renegades of Funk” adds social/historical/political lyrics to the dance-floor dynamism and delivers a really bizarre blend of rap, synthesizers and oppressive electronic percussion(…)

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Since 1974, Trouser Press has been covering the Other Music beat and currently resides on the web at www.trouserpress.com

I will be posting a random link from Trouser Press on every Tuesday until I just flat out forget.

Trouser Press Tuesday: ROBERT GORDON (WITH LINK WRAY)

This is cool; I was just watching Link Wray clips on YouTube this weekend and I own one of these records on vinyl:

ROBERT GORDON WITH LINK WRAY
Robert Gordon with Link Wray (Private Stock) 1977
Fresh Fish Special (Private Stock) 1978
ROBERT GORDON
Rock Billy Boogie (RCA) 1979
Bad Boy (RCA) 1980
Are You Gonna Be the One (RCA) 1981
Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die (RCA) 1982
Live at Lone Star (Fr. New Rose) 1989
Robert Gordon Is Red Hot (Ger. Bear Family) 1989

Singer Robert Gordon made one of the sharpest volte-faces in musical memory when he left New York pseudo-punkers Tuff Darts to reappear as a freeze-dried ’50s rocker, complete with sideburns, pompadour, a songbook of Sun Records oldies and authentic guitar icon Link Wray in tow.

Superficial trappings aside, Gordon’s strongest asset is his magnificent voice — a clear, clean baritone rarely heard in pop music of any stripe. His debut album, Robert Gordon with Link Wray, is suffused with rockabilly material (songs from Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent, Billy Lee Riley and Eddie Cochran), but the accompaniment by the Wildcats is more contemporary, with Wray contributing sizzling guitar licks(…)

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Since 1974, Trouser Press has been covering the Other Music beat and currently resides on the web at www.trouserpress.com

I will be posting a random link from Trouser Press on every Tuesday until I just flat out forget.

Trouser Press Tuesday: OH-OK

OH-OK
Wow Mini Album EP (DB) 1982
Furthermore What EP (DB) 1983
BUZZ OF DELIGHT
Sound Castles EP (DB) 1984
HOLIDAY
Hello EP (Nightshade) 1987
HETCH HETCHY
Make Djibouti EP (Texas Hotel) 1988
Swollen (Texas Hotel) 1990

After hearing so many art bands buried in their own sense of self-importance, it’s refreshing to bask in the modesty of Athens’ Oh-OK. Like R.E.M. (with whom they share a family tie), this humble group put their elliptical ideas over as much by being good guys as anything else.

Oh-OK was a guitarless trio on the 7-inch Wow, offering four clever and tuneful songs that get their drive from Lynda (sister of Michael) Stipe’s pumping bass and their charm from Linda Hopper’s breathy singing: a delightful mix of Pylon and the female side of the B-52’s(…)

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Since 1974, Trouser Press has been covering the Other Music beat and currently resides on the web at www.trouserpress.com

I will be posting a random link from Trouser Press on every Tuesday until I just flat out forget.

Trouser Press Tuesday: Silent Running

SILENT RUNNING
Emotional Warfare (EMI America) 1984
Walk on Fire (Atlantic) 1987
Deep (Atlantic) 1989

If Belfast bands are generally esteemed for their passionate intensity, someone forgot to tell Silent Running. Emotional Warfare (released abroad as Shades of Liberty) contains slick humdrum dance-rock with only Peter Gamble’s Bonoesque bellow to suggest — if not generate — any enthusiasm. The pounding “Emotional Warfare” is as good as it gets, and that’s not very. The eager-for-airplay Walk on Fire reduces Silent Running to a quartet (the keyboardist left) and comes on like a dull hybrid of the Fixx and Bad Company(…)

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Since 1974, Trouser Press has been covering the Other Music beat and currently resides on the web at www.trouserpress.com

I will be posting a random link from Trouser Press on every Tuesday until I just flat out forget.

Trouser Press Tuesday: WHITE ANIMALS

WHITE ANIMALS
Nashville Babylon EP (Dread Beat) 1981
Lost Weekend (Dread Beat) 1982
Ecstasy (Dread Beat) 1984

Proof that Jason and the Scorchers aren’t the only modern, independent rock band in Nashville, the White Animals have been active on the scene there for a number of years. These three releases on the band’s own label showcase a developing style, from hard-driving rootsy rock’n'roll on Nashville Babylon (which features covers of “Tobacco Road” and “For Your Love” as well as four originals) to more refined power pop and odd rock digressions (marred by muddy production) on Lost Weekend to a slick, commercial sound on Ecstasy, their best record except for nine onerous minutes of “Gloria.” The White Animals aren’t exactly bursting with personality, but make it up with sincere enthusiasm(…)

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Since 1974, Trouser Press has been covering the Other Music beat and currently resides on the web at www.trouserpress.com

I will be posting a random link from Trouser Press on every Tuesday until I just flat out forget.