Jon Hope's Album Reviews
This was their least memorable record? The album that includes two of the all-time D'nC classics, "Honeysuckle Blue" and "Straight To Hell"? Those two songs made an indelible mark on the collective consciousness of every rock fan here in Georgia. I guarantee that if you started to sing "Straight To Hell" on the streets of Atlanta or Athens, every man and woman over 30 within earshot would start singing along. I am not the biggest fan of this band, but I admire what Kevn Kinney has accomplished as a songwriter. He came from Milwaukee but managed to write some of the best Southern rock anthems since Lynyrd Skynyrd. Proof of the saying that it ain't where you're from, it's where you're at. And for Southern whites of a certain age, this album is where it's at.
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For me, Thirst is one of the best post-punk albums of 1981, and "4 Hours" is on par with "Final Solution" and "That's When I Reach For My Revolver" as an anthem of disaffection from society. At the time, the band had a conventional guitar/bass/drums lineup (with the addition of dissonant saxophone and clarinet). The album is unlike what came before it (the improvisatory White Souls In Black Suits) or afterward (the electronic Clock DVA of 1989-1993).
The entire band left after Thirst to form a new group called The Box, and vocalist Adi Newton formed a new Clock DVA for the next record, Advantage. Allmusic's biography links to a French-Canadian band called The Box, but the ex-DVA members actually went here: allmusic.com/artist/box-mn0001861680
The entire band left after Thirst to form a new group called The Box, and vocalist Adi Newton formed a new Clock DVA for the next record, Advantage. Allmusic's biography links to a French-Canadian band called The Box, but the ex-DVA members actually went here: allmusic.com/artist/box-mn0001861680
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One of the best new albums I've heard in 2016, and the best Drones album since Gala Mill.
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"Standard Coltrane" was first released on LP in 1962 (which isn't listed by AllMusic). Coltrane had left Prestige Records, and the label gathered some of his unreleased recordings (including this 1958 date) to continue to capitalize on Coltrane's popularity.
"Invitation" was written by the Polish composer Bronislau Kaper as the theme to the 1952 film of the same name. Kaper's music had already attracted the attention of jazz musicians, as his film theme for "Green Dolphin Street" (1947) was a bop standard.
"Invitation" was written by the Polish composer Bronislau Kaper as the theme to the 1952 film of the same name. Kaper's music had already attracted the attention of jazz musicians, as his film theme for "Green Dolphin Street" (1947) was a bop standard.
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I really enjoy this album of covers. Micadelia has a lovely voice, and the arrangements are contemporary (Free Ride was released in 2009), but respectful of the originals. My favorites are the title track (an uptempo arrangement of Nick Drake's song), and a fun cover of "Bron Y Aur Stomp". Micadelia also does a good job on the other Led Zeppelin cover, "Going To California".
She appears young but seems to have an affinity for the Seventies: Carole King's "So Far Away", the aforementioned Nick Drake cover, George Harrison's "Long Long Long", plus three by Neil Young: "Cinnamon Girl", "The Needle and the Damage Done" and "Through My Sails" (an interesting choice, and another highlight of the album). I read that she once fronted a Neil Young cover band called Mica and the Gold Rush, and a Led Zeppelin cover band called Mica and The Other Pages. ("The Needle and the Damage Done" is a bonus track on the Free Ride album.)
More contemporary are "Hanging On The Telephone" by The Nerves (performed in a style similar to Blondie's cover); and Nirvana's "Polly" (my least favorite song on the album). Languid and moody ballads suit Mica's voice well, and the Church's "Under The Milky Way" is another example.
"Sadness" was written by Mika Sundqvist, a Finnish musician. "With Every Heartbeat" is by Swedish pop star Robyn. I think Micadelia is also from Sweden. There is only a slight trace of an accent in Mica's voice, which is clear and smooth, and has a slightly breathy tone that is pleasant to hear. The only other release by Micadelia (aside from this album) is a digital single of "Grow Old With Me," which I believe is a cover of one of John Lennon's last recorded songs.
She appears young but seems to have an affinity for the Seventies: Carole King's "So Far Away", the aforementioned Nick Drake cover, George Harrison's "Long Long Long", plus three by Neil Young: "Cinnamon Girl", "The Needle and the Damage Done" and "Through My Sails" (an interesting choice, and another highlight of the album). I read that she once fronted a Neil Young cover band called Mica and the Gold Rush, and a Led Zeppelin cover band called Mica and The Other Pages. ("The Needle and the Damage Done" is a bonus track on the Free Ride album.)
More contemporary are "Hanging On The Telephone" by The Nerves (performed in a style similar to Blondie's cover); and Nirvana's "Polly" (my least favorite song on the album). Languid and moody ballads suit Mica's voice well, and the Church's "Under The Milky Way" is another example.
"Sadness" was written by Mika Sundqvist, a Finnish musician. "With Every Heartbeat" is by Swedish pop star Robyn. I think Micadelia is also from Sweden. There is only a slight trace of an accent in Mica's voice, which is clear and smooth, and has a slightly breathy tone that is pleasant to hear. The only other release by Micadelia (aside from this album) is a digital single of "Grow Old With Me," which I believe is a cover of one of John Lennon's last recorded songs.
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George Jones did nor write "Ragged But Right". Riley Puckett did. George Jones did not write "Grits Ain't Groceries". It was Titus Turner. I don't know how many other songs are incorrectly credited to George Jones by Allmusic.
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What happens when you make a perfect record and the world doesn't notice? I guess you break up, which is what Oranger did after this, their last and best album. Top notch power pop songwriting from beginning to end, stripped of the eccentricity and occasional self-indulgence of previous Oranger albums. The band is playing at their peak, tight and forceful. "Radio Wave" is perhaps the greatest song of their career, but the album is packed with joyous and memorable tunes.
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This is not the same band as the 1980's group Head (which featured Nick Sheppard from the Cortinas, and Gareth Sager from the Pop Group and Rip Rig & Panic).
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Sadly, the band had lost the plot by this final Head album. It was their bid for mainstream success, and was produced by Michael Jonzun. The single "All The Boyz (At War)" even featured a talk box (the gadget that Roger Troutman and Peter Frampton used). Rich Beale (aka Clevedon Pier) is a great singer, but the songs are weak, the rhymes are pedestrian, and the group's sense of humor has gone missing. Gareth Sager and Nick Sheppard are billed under their real names rather than the great pseudonyms of past Head records (like Candy Horsebreath and Hamilton MacAdemical).
The core trio of Beale, Sager, and Sheppard is joined on this album by bassist Paul Francis and drummer Willie Ng. Nick Sheppard later joined Joe Strummer and Paul Simenon for the Clash's anticlimactic Cut The Crap.
Intoxicator is the only one of Head's three albums that was never issued on CD, and Virgin Records dropped the band after Head failed to make a dent in the charts. There is a digital only collection of early Head demos called "Bottled Vintage XXX" on the Bristol Archives label. After Beale's next band Apache Dropout broke up, he and Sager worked together again in the 90's band Pregnant (with a 1997 CD called Unusual Lover, and two posthumous digital releases on Bristol Archives).
Sager and Beale indulged a surreal sense of humor and musical eclecticism with Pregnant, which was more in keeping with the spirit of early Head. Beale later sang in a trip-hop duo called Receiver (look up their CD entitled Chicken Milk). Sager formed C.C. Sager with Steve Noble and Dave Hunter from Pregnant, and later played with Davy Henderson in The Nectarine No. 9. Henderson in turn appeared on Sager's 2009 solo album Slack Slack Music.
The core trio of Beale, Sager, and Sheppard is joined on this album by bassist Paul Francis and drummer Willie Ng. Nick Sheppard later joined Joe Strummer and Paul Simenon for the Clash's anticlimactic Cut The Crap.
Intoxicator is the only one of Head's three albums that was never issued on CD, and Virgin Records dropped the band after Head failed to make a dent in the charts. There is a digital only collection of early Head demos called "Bottled Vintage XXX" on the Bristol Archives label. After Beale's next band Apache Dropout broke up, he and Sager worked together again in the 90's band Pregnant (with a 1997 CD called Unusual Lover, and two posthumous digital releases on Bristol Archives).
Sager and Beale indulged a surreal sense of humor and musical eclecticism with Pregnant, which was more in keeping with the spirit of early Head. Beale later sang in a trip-hop duo called Receiver (look up their CD entitled Chicken Milk). Sager formed C.C. Sager with Steve Noble and Dave Hunter from Pregnant, and later played with Davy Henderson in The Nectarine No. 9. Henderson in turn appeared on Sager's 2009 solo album Slack Slack Music.
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An overlooked album, and one of my favorites of 2015. Disappears puts the bass and drums way up front in the mix, almost like a dub record. Irreal reminds me of the first Ike Yard record, with its almost emotionless, spoken vocals and the spare instrumentation.
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