[The Dusty Shelf is a weekly column that showcases a tragically overlooked album from the music snob's library.]

Don’t let their San Francisco roots fool you.  The Flamin’ Groovies are no flower power band – they are raw power, more in line with the early 70s’ proto-punk Detroit scene.  Even as early as their 1970 sophomore album Flamingo, the Groovies were all about careening freight train chaos.  The album’s third song, “Headin’ for the Texas Border”, remains one of rock and roll’s supremely unrelenting hard rock anthems, even if most people have never heard it (though bands as recent as the Raconteurs have been known to cover it live).

The Flamin’ Groovies were victims of no other misfortunate than the simple fact that they inhabited a scene that was fueled by bands like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane.  MC5’s Wayne Kramer once said of the west coast bands, “I think they all hated us because they had to play with us in Detroit, where we kicked all their asses.”  In a way, this applied to the Groovies, except that they were already native Californians and had to make do in spite of it.

Continued

[The Dusty Shelf is a weekly column that showcases a tragically overlooked album from the music snob's library.]

Blue Cheer are perhaps the best of the forgotten 60s power trios.  They only really had one great album (which makes them perfect for this column), but that album did nearly as much for the evolution of heavy metal as Cream’s Disraeli Gears.

Vincebus Eruptum, Blue Cheer’s 1968 debut, demonstrated a perfect understanding of Cream’s balance of powers – Leigh Stephens provided a very similar, fuzzed-out acid rock guitar sound as late-60s Eric Clapton, while Dickie Peterson’s deft, shark fin basslines carried Stephens’ grungy blues on their backs.  Finally, Paul Whaley was the group’s Ginger Baker, forcefully punching his way into your eardrums with his cymbal crashes and drum fills.

That description may make them sound too much like a Cream clone rather than a protégé, and sometimes they were.  That probably didn’t ultimately bode well for their long term success, but the band also had its own, snarling attitude that culminated in Peterson’s voice.  Balancing somewhere in between the Small Faces’ Steve Marriott and MC5’s Rob Tyner.  It was Peterson’s raspy delivery and swampy guitar work that turned the Eddie Cochran cover “Summertime Blues” into the band’s biggest hit.

Continued

[The Dusty Shelf is a weekly column that showcases a tragically overlooked album from the music snob's library.]

R&B and soul music has an interesting and rather unique tradition compared to other pop subgenres in that reinterpretations of older songs is not only accepted, it is expected, and can even substitute new material.  A rock and roll covers album is kind of a novelty, but an R&B covers album is common practice – a cause to take notice.  Perhaps more so than any other covers album, Laura Nyro’s 1971 album, Gonna Take a Miracle, proves just how powerful and fresh an intelligent reimagining of old songs can be.

Nyro, whose voice is the sonic incarnate of empowered female sexuality, teams with a trio who is equally up to the challenge: Labelle -  the soul combo of Nona Hendryx, Sarah Dash and, of course, Patti LaBelle.  To steal from countless midnight infomercials, these are your favorite classics like you’ve never heard them before.  “You’ve Really Got a Hold On Me” and the title track sound completely rejuvenated and mojofied, slapping you across the face with sass and caressing you with love at the same time.

Continued

Thao with the Get Down Stay Down have announced plans to release a new album this fall. The album will be titled Know Better Learn Faster and will be released on October 13 through Kill Rock Stars. Good news for anyone who, like me, thought We Brave Bee Stings and All was one of the best albums released last year.

Track List:
1 The Clap
2 Cool Yourself
3 When We Swam
4 Know Better Learn Faster
5 Body
6 The Give
7 Good Bye Good Luck
8 Trouble Was For
9 Oh No
10 Fixed It!
11 Burn You Up
12 But What Of The Strangers
13 Easy

Related links:
Thao recently recorded a Daytrotter Session.
Live recording of Thao performing in New York.

We wrote just last week about the announcement of a new, biblically themed, Mountain Goats album about to be hitting stores. This week Darnielle and co. are announcing a full US tour with Final Fantasy and a few lose solo dates here (Ithaca, NY) and there (Berlin). Turns out that Owen from Final Fantasy loves him some black metal too (because, in case you didn’t know, John Darnielle loves metal.) The new Mountain GOats album, The Life of the World to Come, is out through 4AD on October 6.

Mountain Goats/Final Fantasy:

11-04 Grand Rapids, MI – Ladies Literary Club
11-05 Chicago, IL – Metro
11-06 Madison, WI – High Noon Saloon
11-07 Minneapolis, MN – Cedar Cultural Centre
11-10 Seattle, WA – Showbox
11-11 Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
11-14 San Francisco, CA – Fillmore
11-15 Los Angeles, CA – Henry Fonda Theater
11-18 Austin, TX – Antone’s
11-19 Dallas TX – Granada Theater
11-20 Nashville TN – Mercy Lounge
11-21 Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
11-23 Orlando, FL – The Social
11-24 St. Augustine, FL – Café 11
11-27 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
11-28 Philadelphia, PA – Theater of Living Arts
11-29 Boston MA – Wilbur Theatre
12-01 New York, NY – Webster Hall
12-02 Brooklyn, NY – Bell House

Mountain Goats (solo acoustic):

08-21 Durham, NC – Durham Be Easy
09-18 Ithaca, NY – Ithaca College
10-09 Amsterdam, Netherlands – Paradiso
10-10 London, England – QEH
10-11 Manchester, England – Ruby Lounge
10-13 Paris, France – Point Ephemere
10-15 Berlin, Germany – Magnet

Final Fantasy:

08-04 Belfast, Northern Ireland – Empire Music Hall
08-05 Glasgow, Scotland – The Classic Grand
08-06 Kutná Hora, Czech Republic – Creepy Teepee Gask Art Festival
08-07 Myslowice, Poland – Off Festival
08-08 Vienna, Austria – Szene
08-10 Innsbruck, Austria – Weekender
08-12 Utrecht, Netherlands – Tivoli
08-13 Paris, France – La Plage ^
08-14 Haldern, Germany – Haldern Pop Festival
08-15 Gothenburg, Sweden – Way Out West Festival
08-16 Helsinki, Finland – Flow Festival
09-18 London, Ontario – Lola Festival
09-24 Victoria, British Columbia – Alix Goolden Hall #
09-25 Vancouver, British Columbia – St. Andrews-Wesley Church #
09-27 Edmonton, Alberta – McDougall United Church #
09-28 Calgary, Alberta – Knox United Church #
09-30 Regina, Saskatchewan – The Exchange #
10-01 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan – Amigo’s #
10-02 Winnipeg, Manitoba – West End Cultural Centre #

^ with Oneida, Alexandra Tucker
# with Timber Timbre

Check out the new, Heath Ledger directed, video from Modest Mouse. It’s a bit of a gore-fest.

[The Dusty Shelf is a weekly column that showcases a tragically overlooked album from the music snob's library.]

Not all influential bands holds up to the test of time.  King Crimson is one of those bands.  But they are still worth mentioning here, if not for a song that spelled the birth of a whole subgenre of rock music.

Lots of old prog rock sounds pathetically Spinal Tapish to today’s audiences, and I believe that even one of the holy grails of progressive rock, In the Court of the Crimson King, has lost its shine completely.  King Crimson’s 1969 debut may have been beat out by Pink Floyd’s earliest, but it was this album that definitely declared the arrival of progressive rock as a musical force.  And most of that had to do with a remarkable opening track.

“21st Century Schizoid Man” remains possibly the purest, greatest prog rocker in history, opening with a swampy blues riff before cracking open into a supernova of jazz horns and drum rolls.  Before prog songwriting became stymied with Tolkien pomp, “Schizoid Man” is pure punk paranoia, with vocalist Greg Lake screaming breathless, “Blood rack barbed wire/Politicians funeral pyre/Innocents raped with napalm fire/Twenty-first century schizoid man“.  Not exactly “Bungle in the Jungle”, is it?

Continued

John Darnielle has officially announced, via The Mountain Goats website, that a new album, The Life of the World to Come, is forthcoming.

The album has a pretty overt biblical slant that Darnielle is already addressing (the first track has been available less than 24 hours!). All of the track titles are named after Bible verses, including the first track available for download, “Genesis 3:23.” In the same post where Darnielle makes the announcement he touches on the inevitable questions about whether or not he has “found god:”

“I guess the obvious question is going to be: ‘John, have you had some sort of religious awakening?’ and while I guess lots of people might want to be coy about answering that, that’s never really been my style, so: no. It’s not like that. It’s not some heavy-narrative-distance deal either, though, and it’s not a screed. It’s twelve new songs: twelve hard lessons the Bible taught me, kind of. More than that I’d want to wait to say until some people have heard it, which won’t be long. Will there be more news soon, quite soon? Like, next week, even? Oh yes there will!”

The album features the same Mountain Goats lineup that’s been there for a little while now including Peter Hughes and Jon Wurster. Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy) does string arrangements and a little electronic work as well. The Life of the World to Come will be released on October 6 through 4AD.

Track list:
01 1 Samuel 15:23
02 Psalms 40:2
03 Genesis 3:23
04 Philippians 3:20-21
05 Hebrews 11:40
06 Genesis 30:3
07 Romans 10:9
08 1 John 4:16
09 Matthew 25:21
10 Deuteronomy 2:10
11 Isaiah 45:23
12 Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace