David Crosby & Graham Nash - Another Stoney Evening 2003

The Crosby-Nash subset of CSNY carried with it much of the charm and harmony of the larger group, and together and apart the two singers mined that appeal for several gold albums, especially in the first couple of years after the breakup of CSNY in 1970. They even inspired bootleggers, who released Another Stoney Evening, drawn from one of their 1971 shows. Hence the title of this belated official release, is drawn from a different show at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on October 10. Working with acoustic guitars and piano, they sang some of their more popular CSNY songs ("Déjà Vu," "Teach Your Children"), as well as tunes from their solo albums and songs that would turn up on their duo album the following year. Boasting of having "the loosest show on earth" and making cryptic drug references, they nevertheless sang and played well, overcoming with enthusiasm and craft the relative weaknesses of some of the material -- Crosby's formlessness, Nash's preciousness. And the camaraderie they shared with each other and their audience even allowed them a certain imperiousness, such as when the drugged performers lectured the drugged audience on how to clap on the right beat. AMG.

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Gary Duncan Quicksilver - Live at Fieldstone 1997

Beating the bootleggers at their own game, Live at Field Stone was recorded on Memorial Day 1997 at the Field Stone Winery in Healdsburg, CA by the simple expedient of attaching two lapel microphones to a DAT tape machine. The result could have been a mass of high-tech mud, but digitally remastered and tweaked for release, the seven songs here capture Gary Duncan's recycled Quicksilver sounding phenomenal, with lengthy explorations of "Voodoo Boogie #1" and "Bubba Jeans" and seething romps through "Senor Blues" and "Gator Bait." There are moments, to be sure when you could wish for better separation between the instruments, but the disc still relays all the excitement and energy of the night, with the crowning glory arriving via a 15-minute frenzy through Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage." A companion volume can be found in the form of Live at Sweetwater. Infuriatingly, it was pressed without any hard recording data beyond the track listing and lineup, but beyond noting the replacement of bassist Bobby Vega with Jimmy Guyette, this could be a continuation of the simultaneously released Live at Field Stone CD, with "Wide Laig," John Lee Hooker's "Bottle Up and Go," and a wonderful revision of Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues" joining regular Quicksilver favorites "Close Enuff 4 Jazz," "Senor Blues," and "Maiden Voyage" in the repertoire. The recording quality is a little scratchy, as seems to be the case with a lot of these releases, but the energy levels never falter, and Gary Duncan remains the visionary hero behind some of the most exquisitely realized jamming of the age. This may not be the sound of classic '60s Quicksilver, but every band has to grow up sometime. AMG.
 

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Gong - The Universe Also Collapses 2019

Unlike their European contemporaries Hawkwind, Neu! Can, and Amon Düül II, the ever-evolving collective known as Gong were not nearly as well-known for their pioneering brand of psychedelic space rock with conceptual ideas that involved aliens and alternative realities. They were also among the first of these bands to embrace -- and welcome -- improvisation during the late '60s and '70s. Gong was so influential, several of its one- (or two-) time members enjoyed careers leading their own projects, including Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Didier Malherbe, Allan Holdsworth, and Pip Pyle. Founded in France by Daevid Allen (a founding member of Soft Machine) and Smyth in 1967, their trippy music was full of humor and Dadaist passages drenched in labyrinthine grooves, sophisticated charts, and a healthy dose of improvisation. Magick Brother, the band's 1969 debut was released by France's BYG label and included vanguard jazz bassist Barre Phillips as a guest. 1971's Camembert Electrique is widely considered a classic and reveals the boundary-less frontiers of their sound. Though members came and went over the decades -- including Allen and Smyth -- and the band spawned several offshoots -- they seemed to regroup with a startling array of new collaborators. They also inspired offshoot bands such as Pierre Moerlin's Gong, Mother Gong, Planet Gong, Gongmaison, etc. In 1973 and 1974, their Flying Teapot, Angel's Egg, and You albums were conceptually linked as the "Radio Gnome Invisible" trilogy, all are considered Avant-prog classics. By 2009 the concept encompassed six albums including Shapeshifter (1992), Zero to Infinity (2000), and 2032 (2009). The original group reunited for tours between 1996-2001. Allen passed away in 2015 and Smyth a year later, but Gong remains an ongoing concern as a quintet. Gong came together in the late '60s when Australian guitarist Daevid Allen (ex-Soft Machine) began making music with his wife, singer Gilli Smyth, along with a shifting lineup of supporting musicians. Albums from this period include Magick Brother, Mystic Sister (1969), and the impromptu jam session Bananamoon (1971) featuring Robert Wyatt from Soft Machine, Gary Wright from Spooky Tooth, and Maggie Bell. A steady lineup featuring Frenchman Didier Malherbe (sax and reeds), Christian Tritsch (bass), and Pip Pyle (drums) along with Allen (glissando guitar, vocals) and Smyth (space whisper vocals) was officially named Gong and released Camembert Electrique in late 1971, as well as providing the soundtrack to the film Continental Circus and music for the album Obsolete by French poet Dashiel Hedayat. Camembert Electrique contained the first signs of the band's mythology of the peaceful Planet Gong populated by Radio Gnomes, Pothead Pixies, and Octave Doctors. These characters along with Zero the Hero were the focus of Gong's next three albums, the Radio Gnome Trilogy, consisting of Flying Teapot (1973), Angel's Egg (1974), and You (1975). In these albums, protagonist Zero the Hero is a space traveler from Earth who gets lost and finds the Planet Gong, is taught the ways of that world by the gnomes, pixies, and Octave Doctors, and is sent back to Earth to spread the word about this mystical planet. The bandmembers themselves adopted nicknames -- Allen was Bert Camembert or the Dingo Virgin, Smyth was Shakti Yoni, Malherbe was Bloomdido Bad de Grasse, Tritsch was the Submarine Captain, and Pyle the Heap. Over the course of the trilogy, Tritsch and Pyle left and were replaced by Mike Howlett (bass) and Pierre Moerlen (drums). New members Steve Hillage (guitar) and Tim Blake (synthesizers) joined. After You, Allen, Hillage, and Smyth left the group due to creative differences as well as fatigue. Guitarist Allen Holdsworth joined and the band drifted into virtuosic if unimaginative jazz fusion. Hillage and Allen each released several solo albums and Smyth formed Mothergong. Nevertheless, the trilogy lineup reunited for a few one-off concerts, including a 1977 French concert documented on the excellent Gong Est Mort, Vive Gong album. Allen also reunited with Malherbe and Pyle as well as other musicians he had collaborated with over the years for 1992's Shapeshifter album. Hillage also worked as the ambient-techno alias System 7. A number of Gong-related bands have existed over the years, including Mothergong, Gongzilla, Pierre Moerlin's Gong, NY Gong, Planet Gong, and Gongmaison. During the new millennium, Gong material continued to be released, including Live 2 Infinitea issued in the fall of 2000, as well as numerous reissues. I Am Your Egg appeared in 2006 in the United States of Distribution. Meanwhile, various lineups of the band featuring Allen and Smyth continued to perform and record intermittently, up to the final album I See You, released in 2014 before Allen succumbed to cancer in Australia on March 13, 2015, at the age of 77. Smyth died in 2016 of pulmonary pneumonia. Gong remains a quintet comprising Fabio Golfetti, lead guitar; Dave Sturt, bass; Ian East, reed and woodwinds; Kavus Torabi, guitar, vocals; and Cheb Nettles drums. In 2019 they released Universe Also Collapses for K-Scope.

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Jaco Pastorius - Curtain Call (Live) 1986

Dubbed "the last live American performance of Jaco Pastorius" (liner notes), the posthumously released Curtain Call is the most refreshing of Pastorius' post-big-band live recordings. Sparked by the superb sound quality and enthusiastic, energetic performances, the CD features the only available live recordings by Pastorius of "John and Mary," Herbie Hancock's "Speak Like a Child," and Miles Davis' "So What!," plus the often recorded favorites "Invitation," "Continuum," and "Teen Town." The refreshing aspect, aside from some rarely recorded live material, is the personnel and the absence of guitar. Brian "Whitey" Melvin (drums) and Jon Davis (keys) recorded with Pastorius on three of Melvin's studio dates, but never live. Pastorius is at his most lucid in years thanks to Melvin's spiritual guidance, and Davis and Melvin seem to be playing expressly for Pastorius here. Without having to compete with a guitarist, a rejuvenated Pastorius has center stage, start to finish, his prominence and clarity reaching new heights on the final three compositions, "Mercy, Mercy," "So What!" and "Teen Town." Truly awesome. AMG.

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Houndmouth - Good For You 2021

Houndmouth was formed in 2011 in New Albany, Indiana, a town across the river from Louisville, Kentucky. Founding members included guitarist/vocalist Matt Myers, keyboardist/vocalist Katie Toupin, bassist/vocalist Zak Appleby, and drummer/vocalist Shane Cody. The driven group of musicians quickly built a loyal following based on its fervent live shows and was soon sharing stages with like-minded bands such as Drive-By Truckers and the Lumineers. In 2012, the group issued a self-titled four-song EP, and in 2013, Rough Trade released the band's full-length debut, From the Hills Below the City, a hearty collection of ragged, country-informed rock & roll. After a lengthy bout of touring, including stops at major festivals like Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Newport Folk Festival, Houndmouth returned in March 2015 with Little Neon Limelight, another set of lean country boogie and late-night laments. The following year, Toupin left the band to pursue a solo career, leaving the remaining trio to quickly readjust their live act just before a major tour. Houndmouth carried on with a new set of touring members including keyboardist Caleb Hickman and saxophonists Graeme Gardiner and Drew Miller. A sleeker, more pop-forward sound emerged on 2018's Golden Age, their third album and first without Toupin. Following the release of the album, Houndmouth collected various Golden Age demos as the four-song EP California Voodoo. The next year, a two-song release, California Voodoo, Pt. II, offered up two brand-new studio-recorded songs. In 2021, the band began releasing singles in anticipation of their fourth studio album. That album, Good for You, arrived in November of that year, with production from Brad Cook, who had previously worked on albums by Houndmouth peers Waxahatchee and Hiss Golden Messenger. AMG.
 

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Hukwe Zawose - Bagamoyo 2008

Hukwe Zawose, or Dr. Hukwe Zawose to give him his full title, is probably Tanzania's greatest musical treasure. Growing up in Doduma, he was a cattle herder with plenty of time to himself and a love of the countryside that's evident in his music and his championing of folk traditions. His initial instrument was the ilimba, or large thumb piano, which his older brother also played. He then added the stringed izeze, his father's instrument. His gifts were quickly evident and he began going around the villages as a musician. He recalls, "when I was a young man my voice was so sweet that people would often cry when I sang. In fact, sometimes I would hear myself and even I would cry, wondering what I had done to deserve such a precious gift." Eventually, Julius Nyerere, the first president of the newly independent country, heard about him and summoned him to the capital, Dar Es Salaam. There, the young man found favor with his traditionally based music and became a founding member of the Master Musicians of Tanzania, a group also known as the National Music Ensemble of Tanzania. The band was based at the Bagayomo College of the Arts and even as he was playing with them, Zawose was developing his own wagogo style, mixing traditional stories with political lyrics in Swahili. By now he'd become a master of the thumb piano, with a huge sound to match his remarkable voice -- reportedly he has a five-octave vocal range. He'd also become prolific in areas beyond music, fathering a total of 15 children by four wives, and playing in a duo with one of his sons, Charles Zawose. By the mid-'80s, Zawose and his son were touring outside Africa; at the end of the decade with the Master Musicians; he then released Art of Hukwe Ubi Zawose in Japan, a record that brought him to the attention of world music enthusiasts for its stylish singing and playing. Folkloric and acoustic, it offered the kind of insight to Tanzanian music that none of the pop bands of the coast could match. It was followed by Tanzania Yetu and Mateso on the English indie Triple Earth, and Zawose left his ensemble behind to make his home in London, becoming an established part of the WOMAD festival circuit, which he still regularly plays. That, in turn, led to his first solo disc, 1996's Chibite, which one critic called "a startling music stripped down to raw elements." After that, Zawose returned to Tanzania, although he continued to tour regularly around the globe. He was in no hurry to release another album, and it wasn't until 2001 that Mkuki Wa Rocho appeared on the small Womad Select label in a limited pressing. Zawose, an honorary Doctor of Music, continued to play but spent his later years teaching music in his native land. He passed away in December of 2003 at the age of 65. AMG.

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Lake Street Dive - Bad Self Portraits 2014

Bad Self Portraits is eclectic Boston band Lake Street Dive's third studio album and the group's sixth release overall. Produced by Sam Kassirer (Josh Ritter, Erin McKeown), the album comes two years after the group's cover EP, Fun Machine. Rather than revisit that album's neat gimmick of a jazz-soul band covering contemporary pop songs, Lake Street Dive instead delve into a substantial batch of their own blue-eyed-soul and Southern rock-inflected originals. Once again, the album showcases lead singer Rachel Price's resonant, old-school singing, which is still the main reason to listen to Lake Street Dive. Of course, with her band backing her at various times with harmony vocals, jazzy trumpets, crunchy tube guitar riffs, and woody jazz basslines, there's always something rootsy and unexpected happening around her on Bad Self Portraits. There is buoyant creativity to many of Lake Street Dive's arrangements, and cuts like "Bobby Tanqueray" and "Seventeen" reveal such time-tested influences as late-'60s Muscle Shoals-influenced soul and Dusty Springfield-esque pop. AMG.

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Hallelujah the Hills - I'm You 2019

Hallelujah the Hills arose from the ashes of Boston's late lamented the Stairs. When the Stairs collapsed at the end of 2005, lead singer/songwriter Ryan Walsh and drummer Eric Meyer announced the formation of their new band. Named after Adolphus Mekas' 1963 cult comedy, Hallelujah the Hills settled on an initial lineup of Walsh and Meyer, David Bentley (cello, guitar), Joe Marrett (bass), and Matt Brown (synth, samples, guitar, melodica). Trumpeter Brian Rutledge joined a few months later, and Elio DeLuca replaced Brown on keyboards in early 2007. Incorporating elements of Guided by Voices' lo-fi power pop, the woozy marching band music of Neutral Milk Hotel, and the off-kilter warblings of David Byrne, Hallelujah the Hills' live shows quickly won accolades from The Boston Phoenix and Salon.com. That ramshackle democracy can be heard on the band's debut album, Collective Psychosis Begone, released on Misra Records in June 2007. AMG.

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Gizmodrome - Gizmodrome 2017

A fun, rollocking album. This title is reminiscent of Stewart Copeland's early work as Klark Kent and contains some fleshed-out ideas from his previous solo work as well as his video game compositions. The other musicians help flesh out the ideas, making the music more engaging. The lyrics carry the stamp of Stewart Copeland's sense of humor, but the backing vocals add character to the songs, making them still interesting after the first listen and the joke is over. The musicianship is stellar but does not upstage the content of the songs themselves, a typically tough task for supergroups to accomplish. A fun album, showing off how fun it is to make interesting music with musicians who just want to include the listener in all the fun they had in making it. AMG.

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Gary B.B. Coleman - Too Much Weekend 1992

After a career as a local bluesman and blues promoter in Texas and Oklahoma, Gary Coleman found his niche when he signed over his first album, a self-produced outing originally issued on his own label, to the fledgling Ichiban company out of Atlanta in 1986. Since that time, both Coleman and Ichiban have made their marks in the blues field: not only did Coleman release half-a-dozen of his own albums, he also oversaw production of the bulk of Ichiban's hefty blues catalog, bringing to the studio a number of artists he'd booked or toured with in his previous career (Chick Willis, Buster Benton, and Blues Boy Willie, among others). A singer/guitarist on-stage, Coleman often took on a multi-instrumentalist's role in the studio. His music remained true to the blues and to the King legacy saluted in his "B.B." moniker and in his acknowledged debt to fellow Texan Freddie King.

Coleman began listening to the blues as a child and by the time he was 15, he was working with Freddie King. Following his association with King, Coleman supported Lightnin' Hopkins and formed his own band, which played around Texas. Gary also began booking blues musicians into clubs in Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. He continued to play gigs and book concerts for nearly two decades. In 1985, he formed Mr. B's Records, his own independent label. He released his debut album, Nothin' But the Blues, the following year. The album was popular and gained the attention of Ichiban Records, who signed Coleman and re-released Nothin' But the Blues in 1987.

If You Can Beat Me Rockin', Coleman's second album, was released in 1988. That same year, he began producing albums for a number of other artists, as well as writing songs for other musicians and acting as an A&R scout for Ichiban. Between 1988 and 1992, he released six records and produced another 30, including albums for Little Johnny Taylor and Buster Benton. Coleman continued to be active until his untimely death in the mid-'90s, both as a performing and recording artist, as well as a producer. AMG.

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Triptides - Alter Echoes 2021

Alter Echoes is the second album Triptides have made since moving to L.A. from Indiana, and their first in a fancy studio, one that boasts a pedigree ranging from the Standells to Pink Floyd. It's also their first for Alive Naturalsound Records, and after all that, it's not a shock that it is their sunniest, most polished, and hardest rocking album to date. The band's leader Glenn Brigman and the new lineup of bassist Stephen Burns and drummer Brendan Peleo-Lazar decided to strip away any remaining vestiges of the lo-fi, reverb-heavy group they once were to become something bright, clean, and super jangly. The album is loaded with songs that have a tight rhythm section backing some seriously chiming 12-string guitar, edging away from psychedelia just a bit in favor of super-charged folk-rock with a kick. Tracks like "It Won't Hurt You" and "Let It Go" show off how the arrangements and sound have both tightened and expanded without losing any of the hooks in the process, "Hand of Time" displays some hard rock crunch, and on "Now and Then" the group bop along happily like they are auditioning for Where the Action Is. Even though they've cleaned up a bit, there is still plenty of psychedelia wafting around the edges of the arrangements, be it phased guitar strums, hazy shades of organ, or the occasional bit of purple prose in the lyrics. Along with changing up their overall sound, the band also try out some new things stylistically. The center of the album is anchored by a few straight-up ballads. "Elemental Chemistry" rolls along slowly like late-period Rain Parade jamming with early-'70s Pink Floyd, "Shining" is a soft rock-meets-prog rock adventure built on keening slide guitar and electric piano, and "Moonlight Reflection" comes across like a vintage Todd Rundgren song complete with lovely vocal harmonies and piano. The best of the batch is the very Zombies-sounding "She Doesn't Want to Know," with Brigman doing his best Colin Blunstone as the group vamps jazzily behind him. These stretches out of their comfort zone work well for the band, giving the record more depth than previous efforts. They may be slightly less retro now -- very slightly -- but any disappointment this alteration might bring is balanced out by the reliably good songs and performances. AMG.

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