Rock and Roll Report Podcast #12 - Spring Has Sprung! Turn It Up!

Well Spring has truly sprung here in Montreal and what better way to celebrate than blaring some cool rock and roll to heat things up! After the last 2 podcasts clocked in at over an hour, this one is a slightly shorter (but still rockin’!) 40 + minutes of amazing indie and unsigned rock and roll.

If you like what you hear and you want to let me know, or you have a band or label you think I might like, email me at rockandrollreport@gmail.com or leave a voice comment on the listener line at 1-206-339-3646. If this is you first time listening, consider subscribing to the podcast and if you are a subscriber, do me a favour and go rate the podcast on the iTunes Podcast Directory. Every little bit helps!

If you want to subscribe to the podcast, just click either of the links below:

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Here is what I played:

1. Rock and Roll Report Intro by Featured on Fridays
2. Sex Drug by Popgun
3. Sensation Addict by Food
4. Filthy Ways by The Sleepers
5. My Fate by Victims of Circumstance
6. I’m Not Saying What You Did Was Bad But Your Timing Could Have Been Better by Dirt Mall
7. Sexual Electricity by the Black Angel Band
8. Straitjacket Blues by The Joots
9. Cat & Mouse by Kickstart
10. Farther Away by The Apple Bros
11. Amy by The Jakals
12. Rock and Roll Report Outro by Featured on Fridays

As always, if you like what you hear support these bands by buying their music, attending their shows and dropping comments on their MySpace pages and show them that you care about real rock and roll!

Thanks for listening.

Later.

Mark

Scott’s Reviews: North Mississippi All-Stars - Hernando

North Mississippi All-Stars - Hernando
Sounds of the South Records

Taking Southern Rock to a new level, The North Mississippi All-Stars are a band who have been making great records and toiling away on the festival circuit for years now gaining more and more fans with every release and every appearance. By taking a marginalized form of rock music and making it relevant again, the All-Stars deserve all the credit in the world. Yes, Virginia, Hootie is not responsible for bringing the South back into prominence for being a great breeding ground for some of the best rock acts - the All-Stars are the reason. Of course, as hokey as some think the Southern Rock sub-genre is, you can’t fake it. You have to actually come from the South and have a great pedigree. Luckily, the All-Stars have it.

The All-Stars had it’s genesis from a punk group called DDT which was formed in the early ’90’s. Luther and Cody Dickinson (sons of the legendary keyboardist and producer Jim Dickinson), like seemingly all youthful musicians, seemingly had to experiment with playing grinding rock and roll as fast and as violent as they could possibly play it and started the blazing thrashy punk band. Though they won raves from the local punk community, they eventually realized their real love was in the country blues, R&B and soul native to the area they grew up in. The music their daddy loved so much that he took it, filtered it through his own sensibilities and helped everyone from Joe Cocker to the Rolling Stones create bodies of work envied by every working band today and, in the process, created his own legend for his sons to try to live up to. For The All-Stars, Luther (guitar, mandolin, vocals) and Cody (drums, samples), all’s okay because as large as their father’s legend looms, they are his lasting legacy and the ones most likely to make their father a household name. Which shouldn’t be too hard as where bands like The Black Crowes are mere dilettantes when it comes to the true origins of Southern Rock, the All-Stars have soaked up the past and added their own spin to create music with a depth those old Crowes couldn’t begin to figure out. With the All-Stars, not only do you get a huge helping of rock, but you also get blues, rockabilly, R&B and gospel elements are combined into a wonderfully thick, murky stew where all of these ingredients blend and become parts of each other as they combine to create one great tasty sound!

A sound they only happily share on the band’s new CD.

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Cover Story - The Rolling Stones’ “Exile on Main Street”, with artwork by John Van Hamersveld

Copyright ©1972 and 2008 by John Van Hamersveld - All rights reserved.Subject: Exile on Main Street, a 1972 release (on Atlantic Records) by The Rolling Stones, with cover artwork & design by John Van Hamersveld

When the Rolling Stones released Exile on Main Street in 1972 - a double album of songs representing the many different genres of music that shaped Stones music at the time - fans and critics found themselves having to spend a lot of time trying to “get it”. It required a number of listens to gain an appreciation of what, on the surface, often seemed to be a collection of studio out-takes and Richards/Taylor/Watts jams than a freshly-recorded musical offering.

Many critics of the era failed to appreciate the Stones’ explorations of R&B, Soul, Country and roots Rock that were spread over the 4 album sides. In fact, the record was comprised of a series of recordings done during the previous four years and, as such, they featured a variety of mixes (some better than others) and showed the band building on top of these influences in their own inimitable style to the point that, now over 35 years later, the package is considered by many to be the band’s most-authentic offering. It is always listed near the top of most of the “Best Of” and “Greatest” lists (#7 on the Rolling Stone Magazine 2003 list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”, #22 on VH-1’s survey, and even impressed the younger generation enough to be ranked #11 on Pitchfork’s 2003 list of Best Albums of the 1970s).

In a similar fashion, when the buying public took their first look at the design and imagery of the sprawling record cover, most people admitted that they didn’t “get it”. Having just soaked in Warhol’s ultimately-iconic banana cover for Sticky Fingers, fans should have been ready for anything, but John Van Hamersveld’s designs seemed to confound them, asking them to digest a rough, anti-establishment, punk-before-there-was-punk collage of images that may have, initially, combined with the unfamiliar musical stylings to impact sales (don’t worry, as the record was supported by the now-famous 1972 American concert tour and songs such as “Happy” and “Tumbling Dice” got some significant radio play, the record went on to top the charts in the U.S. and the U.K.).

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Listen to the New Sloan CD “Parallel Play” at Yep Roc Records

I am a huge fan of Canadian band Sloan. Have been since their first EP Pepermint and I am stoked to hear that they have a new CD coming out this June called Parallel Play and Yep Roc is streaming it on their website right now.

Head over to http://216.69.135.140/MP3Players/Sloan/ParallelPlay/wimpy.html for a listen. I am going there now!

Later.

Mark

Rock and Roll report TV: The Small Faces - “What’cha Gonna Do About It”

Just like how I enjoy discovering all kinds of amazing bands that seem to be releatively unknown to most, it is fun to comb through rock and roll history and re-discover those acts who never seemed to get their due. One such act was the Small Faces and I have only really just started to delve into their amazing catalog of rock and roll fun. Aversion has discovered a great vintage clip of the Small Faces performing What’cha Gonna Do About It in black and white which I think is rock and roll and its most basic, and most fun. You decide.

Later.

Mark

San Diego Battle Of Bands Invites Rockers

The San Diego County Fair’s Battle of the Bands is looking for the best rock n’ roll band, judged on quality of vocal and instrumental performances, stage presence, originality, and fan reaction. The winner receives priority booking for a show on the Coors Light Rock On Stage at the fair, live broadcasting on 94.9 FM, a performance at the Casbah, a possible appearance on Fox 6’s San Diego Living, a 12-hour recording session from Dinky Music Recording Studios, and $1000. Applications must be postmarked by May 23rd. Download the details, rules and free application at: www.sdfair.com/fair/pdf/08se_battlebands_ap.pdf For personal assistance: (858) 755-1161

Scott’s Reviews: Harry Manx & Kevin Breit - In Good We Trust

Harry Manx & Kevin Breit - In Good We Trust
Stony Plain Records

A truer album title has not been created in many a moon! Duo Harry Manx and Kevin Breit up the ante on this, their second album as a duo following the incredible 2003 release Jubilee, a fantastic record which made music fans do happy headspins once they heard the incredible stringed-instrument playing on the album. While Manx and Breit excel at creating their own compositions, the killer cut on the album was an absolutely astounding cover of The Doobie Brothers’ “Takin’ It To The Streets” which smokes the original. Thank God the two decided their collaboration was worth a second edition as both are very busy with careers of their own. Manx is a successful solo artist with a bunch of excellent albums to his credit, Breit is a very much in-demand jazz session guitarist. On this new disc, as they did on their first disc together, they ply their blues-based (though what they play is much more intellectual than the usual cliche 12-bar blues burner) runs and jazz-flavored licks to perfection on various instruments, adding texture and depth to a great selection of songs infusing them with an incredible amount of soul inherent from their years of musical study.

Born on the Isle of Man, Manx took the formidable guitar-playing skills he gathered at an incredibly young age (by intensely studying his blues guitar heroes nearly ever waking non-school moment) and decided to travel Europe and the rest of the world extensively, learning new applications for his already-incredible technique and phrasing wherever he went. While traveling in Japan in the early ’90s Manx heard a recording of an Indian musical instrument called the Mohan Veena for the first time and was knocked out by the sound and tonal possibilities of the instrument. He so fell in love with the sound of the Mohan Veena he decided to travel to India to study the instrument under one of the Mohan Veena’s most well-renowned teachers, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. He spent five years studying under Bhatt and also participated in several tours of India with his mentor.

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The Rock and Roll Report Focus is on Jesse Siebenberg

Jesse Siebenberg was almost destined to be part of the music scene: His father, Bob Siebenberg, is the drummer from the band Supertramp, and Scott Gorham from Thin Lizzy is Jesse’s Uncle. With that type of situation, it was only a matter of time before the music bug bit him.
With experience as a 13 year old session drummer under his belt and the time he spent composing his own music, Jesse took the next logical step and enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston where he studied film scoring, music production/engineering and composition. Later, he went on to California to continue his studies at Westmore College.

Taking the education he received in college, Jesse started producing for other people. During this time, Jesse met singer/songwriter/producer Todd Hannigan at Brotheryn Studios. There, Jesse teamed up with Todd and the two currently run Brotheryn Studios together with Jason Mariani. Since the time that Jesse joined Brotheryn Studios, the company has won many awards and praises.

Jesse Siebenberg has finally put out an album of his own music in 2007. The album, “Undiscovery”, features Jesse doing what he does best: creating the music on his own and playing almost every instrument himself. Along with guitar, bass, drums and other instruments that Jesse performs on, other roles he plays on the album include producer, engineer and string arranger.

A good way to describe Jesse’s sound is to say he has much in common with Tal Bachman: The two musicians come from musical families, they have similar styles of writing, they would be played on the same alternative rock radio format, and they both play many instruments on their respective albums.

The difference is in the strengths of the songs: While Tal Bachman only had “She’s So High,” as a hit, the rest of the album is not very strong. In comparison, “Undiscovery” could get major airtime on radio. The two strongest tracks, in my opinion, are: Me Inside You and Stranger in a Stranger’s Arms. This first release by one of the most talented musicians in the country is one of the best independent rock releases of 2007.
Having spent many years playing for other people, Jesse Siebenberg’s “Undiscovery” will help him make a name for himself as a writer to add to his reputation as a strong musician. Keep your eyes and ears open for this performer.

Check out Jesse Siebenberg and his music by going to his MySpace account @ www.myspace.com/jessesiebenberg.

Buy it on

Matheson Kamin

Deep Grooves: A former Byrd flies high on this reissue.

Gene Clark w/ Carla Olsen - In Concert
Collector’s Choice

Roots rock fans should bow down and give thanks to Collector’s Choice for this recent release. Not only will fans of the genre be absolutely thrilled with some previous unreleased live work from former Byrd Gene Clark but having ex-Textone Carla Olsen along for the ride is a double treat. Not only is Olsen a great singer/songwriter in her own right, but her work with Clark in the ’80’s was Clark’s most fruitful partnership since he left the Byrds. Clark seemed to shine whenever Olsen was nearby and both artists always brought their A-games whenever they decided to work together. Thanks to these newly discovered live recordings, we can once again marvel at Clark’s gifts and the fabulous interplay he had with Olsen, and though Clark always faired better as a team player than he did on his own as his history tends to bear out, he was a marvelous artist and one of rock’s best songwriters.

If nothing else, his brief sojourns with The Byrds will bear this out.

While he was only with the band for two brief stretches, Gene Clark will always be best known for being a part of the earliest incarnation of the Byrds (1964-1966) for which he wrote and sang lead on some of the band’s best known songs (”Eight Miles High”, “Feel A Whole Better,” and “Here Without You”). But before his stint with the Byrds, he was a part of folk-pop group The New Christy Minstrels, who scored a few hits on the pop charts in the early ’60’s. Thankfully for fans of country-rock, he eventually became tired of the Minstrels constant touring and quit the band. He met Jim McGuinn (who later changed his name to Roger) and together they formed the Byrds, becoming forerunners of the influential country-rock sound which would eventually influence artists like Linda Ronstadt and The Eagles, among many others. As previously mentioned, Clark’s time in the Byrds was brief with contributing factors such as a fear of flying and growing resentment from the others for his dominant songwriting skills leading to his exit. Clark was immediately signed by Columbia as a solo act but his debut solo album did very little business, due to his teaming with the Gosdin Brothers for an interesting record. Seems the world wasn’t ready for a total rock/country hybrid at that point in time, though the album was brilliant in execution.

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Rock and Roll Report Radio Playlist for April 21, 2008

Well it was another fine night of rockin’ tunes on Rock and Roll Report Radio as we hit all points with some very cool music that has just been released, is about to be released, has yet to be released and I threw in a Worldwide Radio Premiere to top it all off! All this while just finishing watching my beloved Montreal Canadiens hockey team defeat the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Don’t forget that if you like what you hear you can download a podcast of the show for one week from the date of broadcast and then after that you can listen to a streaming edition of the show for a few months at www.ckut.ca.

This is what I played:

1. Sensation Addict by Food
2. Cat & Mouse by Kickstart
3. Sexual Electricity by the Black Angel Band
4. She’s Not the Girl For Me by The Condors
5. Filthy Ways by The Sleepers
6. Farther Away by the Apple Bros
7. Good Voodoo by The Teenage Prayers
8. Let It Loose by the Babylon Bombs
9. Outta Town by The Fores
10. Amy by The Jakals
11. Backing Down by Punchface
12. Anything by Best of Seven
13. Hard to Say Goodbye by Lick & A Promise

drastic plastic 128kbps Podcast

Later.
Mark

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