Tag Archives: beatles

PIGSHIT: “MACH SCHAU, PEEDLES!”

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Every Sixties recording artist seemed to have ‘em:  There were the Beach Boys’ Hite Morgan tapes, the Stones’ IBC demos, the Byrds’ notorious Jet Set sessions, and even the Velvet Underground’s attempts at becoming East Coast studio stringers for Gary Lewis and the Playboys (…just kidding about that last one) (I think).

As a brand new collection called The Beatles with Tony Sheridan: First Recordings, 50th Anniversary Edition more than proves, even the almighty Fab Four were not immune to this pre-fame plague of skeletons-in-the-audio-closet. For you see, when not binging on Chuck Berry, Preludins and Schnaps in Hamburg’s red-light district throughout their, um, formative years, our heroes also served as in-studio back-up band to one of Britain’s then very biggest rock stars.  Continue reading →

PIGSHIT: The small machine that could

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For all intents and purposes, Lindsey Adams Buckingham has lived a charmed life.

Raised in the comfy Bay Area opulence of 1950′s Atherton, California, a handsome, athletic golden boy suddenly and forever sidetracked by his elder brother’s Elvis and Buddy Holly 45s. He quit the school water polo team, moved with his guitar into a local hotshot band called Fritz, left for L.A. with their singer Stevie, produced with her the magnificently understated Buckingham Nicks album, was soonafter asked to join Fleetwood Mac with whom he helped craft a 40-million-plus-selling album called Rumours and, by 1978 at the age of twenty-nine finally found himself at the very tip-top of his game.

For all intents and purposes, that is.  Continue reading →

PIGSHIT: They Ain’t Heavy…

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Never as naughty as the Rolling Stones, nor as pin-up perfect as Herman’s Hermits; seldom as musically adventurous as the Yardbirds, nitty-gritty as the Animals, or full-on bombastic as The Who. Of course, as truly no-one was, they just weren’t as precociously talented as those Beatles either.

In fact, throughout the entire artistic marathon which was 1960′s pop, perhaps their only true competition – in the vocal department at least – would be the all-American Beach Boys. And, like them, it seems the only true “crime” The Hollies ever committed during their illustrious decades-long career was that they solely concentrated on, well, just making good records.  Continue reading →

PIGSHIT: Much more of The Monkees

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Can it really be true that Rolling Stone publisher/magnate Jann S. Wenner has personally conducted a decades-long campaign to bar The Monkees from induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Far-from-dummy Monkee Peter Tork certainly thinks so.

“He doesn’t care what the rules are and just operates how he sees fit,” Tork told the New York Post in 2007. “It is an abuse of power. I don’t know whether The Monkees belong in the Hall of Fame, but it’s pretty clear that we’re not in there because of a personal whim.”  Continue reading →

“Our band is called Sun Wizard, how about you guys?” – James Younger

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Vancouver’s Sun Wizard is a catchy band whose music is as brilliant as the sun. The group is made up of four friends: James, Mally, Ben and Francesco. The lead singer has the perfect rough voice to make their rock tracks appealing and enjoyable and my favorite one off their new album, Positively 4th Avenue, is “World’s Got a Handle,” a song that reminds me of Razorlight.

“10 Buildings” can take you back to the 1990s, as it has a very similar sound to Nirvana, and overall, with its diversity, Positively 4th Avenue is an album worth listening to because it has the knack to transport you into the band’s own psychic world.  Song writer and guitarist James Younger took time to answer some questions before the album’s September 20th release. Continue reading →

A sit-down with the always on the move Dre of (for right now) Mount Rushmore Safari

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Most or even all you reading this will know that one of the great things about getting to follow a band or musician online is that you are able to follow their progress closely while also getting to know them a little. This applies more to independent and unsigned bands as they generally run their own pages online and working as a journo/reviewer/interviewer for various online sites has given me the opportunity to capitalize on this, which has created some excellent friendships.

Some while ago now I organized a charity event in the UK to raise funds for Cancer Research UK. This proved to be a brilliant experience, although mostly due to my enthusiasm and naivety it only managed to raise about £70 after costs. I have no regrets though, I am glad to have learned from this and have every intention of running a similar event some time in the future once I get the chance to do so. The point which I am getting to is that one of the bands whom I staged was Le Cul from Denmark. I got to know Andreas (Dre) from Le Cul in my early networking days and we soon built up a good rapport. Not long after becoming hooked on the style, ethos and attitude of Le Cul, I found that this band was just a rock ’n’ roll outlet for the band’s two founding members, Dre and Maxim. Continue reading →

PIGSHIT: Deep-Catalog Purple

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“Just what the world needs:  Another record company.”

And with those typically snide words, on the Seventh day of February, 1968, Bizarre Productions was duly incorporated, and two hundred shares of no par value common stock issued in the State of New York, thereby creating the first of several record companies Frank Zappa would oversee during his most colorful life and career.

At this very same point in time, 3500 miles and one ocean to the east, the world’s biggest pop group launched their very own Apple company, whose singles and albums were manufactured and distributed in North America by that granddaddy of all (once-) indie labels, Capitol Records. Of course, as they usually were, Capitol’s resident Beach Boys were already over a year ahead of the Fab Four in creating their own personal Brother Records imprint, ostensibly conducting business right out of that iconic Capitol Tower on the corner of Hollywood and Vine (though, truth be told, most Brother board meetings were held in Brian Wilson’s swimming pool or, if the vibes so dictated, under a tent in Brian’s living room).

Continue reading →

PIGSHIT: Herman’s Hermits Made Movies, Two!

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In the utterly go-go, trans-media flurry which was mid-sixties pop(ular culture), every television star worth their Nielsens was expected to not only chase spies and rope steers, but compete with those rock ‘n’ rollers of the moment upon the Top Forty to boot. To cite but two examples, Lorne Bonanza Greene and his 1964 chart-topping “Ringo,” not to mention Captain James T. Kirk’s similarly Beatle-busting Transformed Man album. Which contained the possibly definitive version of “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,” I kid you not. Continue reading →

PIGSHIT: Eight questions for our ANT-BEE

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I know of only one man in the entire world who can gather members of Yes, Focus, Gong, Utopia, the (original) Mothers of Invention, the (original!) Alice Cooper group, and even the late, extremely great captain’s Magic Band all together upon the same compact disc – often on the same song even – and somehow not only make it sound right, but make it sound great. That man is the one, the only Billy James who, doing business since 1987 as ANT-BEE, has concocted some of the most delightfully challenging ear honey since, well, Robert Fripp lost his sense of humor for starters. Yes, “prog” is no longer a four-letter word in Billy’s hands, and Electronic Church Muzik, the first ANT-BEE album in too-many years, is finally here.

It contains sixty-four full minutes of audio which, quite frankly, defy description. So I’m not even going to try. Instead, on behalf of us all, I thought I’d simply sit The Man / The Ant down to tell us, as only he can… Continue reading →

16-year-old soul, forty-five years later

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Most of us first met this latest in a long line of Fifth Beatles on or soon after April 11, 1969 with the release of a self-described little “song to roller-coast by” called “Get Back.” Never before, you see, had the Fab Four shared sacred label credit with anyone other than themselves. But there it was, printed right atop that bright green revolving Granny Smith: “The Beatles… with Billy Preston.”

However, much prior to his musical roller-coasting, William Everett Preston already enjoyed a proud and prodigious career, launched from his mother’s lap where, at age three, he began playing the family piano. Soon he was performing with James Cleveland, Andraé Crouch and Mahalia Jackson, and in 1958 portrayed W.C. Handy (alongside Nat “King” Cole) in the film St. Louis Blues. Barely into his teens, Billy was on the road with Little Richard (first running into the Beatles in Hamburg, Germany) and Ray Charles when he was hired in 1963 to perform on the Sam Cooke album Night Beat. His organ work throughout those sessions – on the version of “Little Red Rooster” therein especially – lead to his immediately being signed, on the spot, to Cooke’s fledgling SAR label. Continue reading →