David Hidalgo & Louie Perez – The Long Goodbye 2010

The creative impulse that David Hidalgo and Louie Perez bring to Los Lobos might well be camouflaged within the collective efforts of the band that produces such memorable work as Kiko (Slash/Warner Bros, 1992) and The Town and The City (Hollywood, 2006), but this collection of easygoing, informal recordings by the pair illuminate just how they spark the ingenuity of that band from east LA.
The simplicity inherent in this set of previously unreleased recordings, completed over a span of four decades, is its greatest virtue, but a deceptive one nonetheless. Hidalgo and Perez are such manifestly intelligent men and musicians; nothing they do is as transparent as this seems, but rather a composite reflection on their lives, individually and together, as human beings and artists.

It should come as no surprise that The Long Goodbye so closely resembles a Los Lobos album. After all, Hidalgo and Perez are multi-instrumentalists fully capable of creating the façade of a full band through the miracle of the cassette recorder, with the addition of engineer Larry Hirsch's technical expertise. Nevertheless, the depth of the grooves in "What Good Is Love" and "Big August Moon" are remarkable for the playing's internal motion: it is the sensation of a cooking band.

"Take My Hand" and "Empty Words" are, in contrast, the soulful renderings of the respective songs as direct means of communication, and a reminder why Hidalgo is such a powerful performer, who becomes the songs he sings and plays; a powerful effect with Los Lobos around him and only a little less so here. "When Love Fails" is a rootsier take on style, the sound of pedal steel enlarging the border of the American south, and along the same lines on "Til The Hands Fall Off the Clock," where Hidalgo and Perez mix polka with R&B in such a way as to heighten the authenticity of each stylistic motif.

The intimacy of these recordings amplifies the joy these two men share in collaborating. Musicians as naturally intuitive as Hidalgo and Perez generate a chemistry that carries over into the songs and their recording, so that a direct connection to the tune feeds their musicianship even as the instrumentals complete the composition; one is not separate from the other. Not surprisingly, then, the duo wastes no notes on The Long Goodbye nor indulge in the inclusion of chords, lyrics or any component of an arrangement that's not absolutely essential.

As an unfortunate result of their spartan approach, this CD is woefully brief at less than thirty-five minutes, but the album nevertheless offers a glimpse into an creative relationship that, by all sounds and appearances, continues to gain momentum as time goes on.

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Re-Post: Texas Tornados - 4 Aces 1996

Thanks to B. The ultimate Tex-Mex supergroup, Texas Tornados were composed of some of the genre's most legendary figures:Doug Sahm, Augie Meyers (Sahm's bandmate in the groundbreaking Sir Douglas Quintet), Hispanic country starFreddy Fender, and accordion virtuoso Flaco Jimenez. The group's infectious, party-ready sound blended country, early rock & roll, Mexican folk music, R&B, blues, and whatever other roots musics crossed their paths. The Tornados first assembled in 1989 at a concert in San Francisco, billing themselves as the Tex-Mex Revue. They enjoyed the collaboration so much they decided to stick with it and generated far more publicity together than they would have solo; Jimenez had released several acclaimed albums by that point, but Sahm had recorded only sporadically during the '80s, and Fenderhardly at all. Their self-titled debut album was released on Reprise in 1990 -- in both English and Spanish versions -- to rapturous reviews and also sold pretty well, reaching number 25 on the country charts. The group toured extensively behind it and issued the Grammy-nominated follow-up albumZone of Our Own in 1991, again to hugely positive reviews. By the time of 1992's Hangin' on by a Thread, the group's primary audience was Latino, and Jimenez accordingly took more and more of the spotlight. After more touring, the group went their separate ways to concentrate on other projects and work on new material; most notably, Sahm and Meyers formed a new version of the Sir Douglas Quintet. In the meantime, Reprise issued a compilation, The Best of Texas Tornados. The Tornadosreconvened in 1996 for the album 4 Aces, which didn't attract quite as much attention or acclaim as their previous work. The group's late-1998 concert at Antone's in Austin was recorded and released the following summer as Live From the Limo, Vol. 1; unfortunately, it would prove to be the only volume, asSahm died of a heart attack in late 1999. AMG.

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Re-Post: Michael Giles, Jamie Muir, David Cunningham - Ghost Dance 1995

Michael Giles is sort of the odd man out in the pantheon of top progressive rock drummers. As it is,Carl Palmer and Bill Bruford tend to get the lion's share of admiration between them, the former if flash and volume are the listener's concerns, and the latter if subtlety (and the intricacies of jazz) are on their list of essentials, but Giles deserves to be in there somewhere, if only for his technical proficiency -- he might not have been as visible or active as Palmer or Bruford, but behind the kit on the first King Crimson album, as a member of McDonald & Giles, or as a member of the 21st Century Schizoid Band, he makes the drums do things that most of us don't expect them to, on top of holding the rhythm.

Borrn in 1942 in Winton, Dorset, England, the elder of two sons, Michael Giles started playing professionally at age 22 as a member of the Trendsetters Ltd. with his younger brother Peter Giles, who played bass. They lasted there for two years and then quit with the intention of forming a group of their own, and were in search of a keyboard player who sang -- instead, they found Robert Fripp, a guitarist who didn't. The team-up took after a summer of rehearsals in 1967, and Giles, Giles & Frippmade their formal debut in a club engagement backing an Italian singer. That gig wasn't successful, but they lasted long enough to prepare a demo tape of some ideas they'd working into songs, which made its way to the songwriting/producing team of Wayne Bickerton and Tony Waddington, who were impressed enough with the trio's mix of jazz and pop sounds, and their satiric edge, so that Bickerton-- who was the head of A&R for Decca Records' progressive Deram label -- signed them to a contract.

Giles, Giles & Fripp never caught on commercially and, indeed, their album was for many years one of the poorest selling in the whole Deram catalog, but they went through some personnel changes, added Ian McDonald and, for a time, folksinger Julie Dyble, losing Peter Giles along the way, and evolved into King Crimson. The formation of the latter group coincided with a blooming of Michael Giles' playing -- as the drummer in the band, he played a heavily proactive role in forging the group's sound, not only in the sudden tempo changes that characterized much of their music (most notably "21st Century Schizoid Man") but also pieces like "Moonchild" and "I Talk to the Wind," on which his percussion work took on a melodic role; he later revealed that he was very much a de facto music coordinator on the album Court of the Crimson King, pulling the different sections of tracks written by or featuring Fripp and keyboard player/singer Ian McDonald into a cohesive, coherent whole. The range of his playing, and its complexity and speed, should have put Giles into the forefront of rock musicians, but the band splintered following their one-and-only American tour late in 1969, and it was more than two years before in intact group called King Crimson -- without Giles in the lineup -- went before the public. In the meantime, Giles, who officially quit the band in early 1970 and returned briefly to play on a second album, formed a duo with fellow Crimson refugee Ian McDonald called McDonald & Giles, which left behind one critically acclaimed self-titled LP.

Over the next few years, he worked as a session musician, playing with Terry Reid in his performance at the Isle of Wight (a performance for which he was pressed into service at the last possible moment), Steve Winwood, Zoot Money, Kevin Ayers, Yvonne Elliman, Francis Monkman, Rupert Hine, John G. Perry, et al. Meanwhile, progressive rock fans latched onto the playing of Carl Palmerand Bill Bruford, working within the context of ELP and Yes and the slightly later edition of King Crimson, respectively, and elevated them to the status of art-rock gods at the drum kit. Giles worked on a solo album in the late '70s that never saw the light of day, and he generally worked his quiet way behind the music scenes -- his most visible project was Ghost Dance, cut in partnership with slightly later Crimson member Jamie Muir. Then, in 2002, he became part of the 21st Century Schizoid Band, a group of ex-King Crimson members from the first phase of the group's existence (plus his brotherPeter) -- they cut an album and toured, and released a full-length concert video, from a tour of Japan. Those recordings and performances showed Giles picking up precisely where he'd left off in 1970, ranging across a vast array of time signatures and patterns, and making his drums almost seem to sing at times -- and also brought back into focus his own singing, which had often been overlooked on the Crimson debut LP.

Never big on touring, Giles has since yielded the drummer spot in the Schizoid Band to Ian Wallace, his once and again successor in King Crimson. Although he's never been overly involved in delving into his own past, he has been able -- like the other members of the original group -- to bask in the glow of archival Crimson live recordings that have surfaced in recent years, from those first six months of the band's existence, with some pride, and has seen an expanded and remixed version ofMcDonald & Giles get released on CD. AMG.

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Re-Post: Ian Wallace - Happiness With Minimal Side Effects 2002

Best known as the drummer in one of the longer-lasting incarnations of King Crimson (January 1971 - April 72), and as a drummer for Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and Crosby, Stills & Nash, Ian Wallace was one of rock's busier percussionists for more than a quarter century. His 40-year career allowed him to work alongside stellar musicians on both sides of the Atlantic, from pioneering bluesman Alexis Korner to such stars and superstars as Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Lindsey Buckingham, and Larry Coryell.

Born in 1946 in Bury, England, Wallace organized his first rock band, the Jaguars, while still in school. In 1963, at age 17, he joined the Warriors, an outfit whose membership included a young vocalist named Jon Anderson, later of Yes, as well as future Badger bassman David Foster. The Warriors lasted until the end of 1967, after which he and Fosterbriefly became members of Big Sound, an outfit that spent a fair amount of time touring northern Europe. He passed through a number of groups in the late '60s, including the World, featuring the Bonzo Dog Band's Neil Innes on vocals, guitar, and keyboards, which lasted six months in 1970.

In early 1971, Wallace became a member of a new performing version of King Crimson. The group, originally formed in 1969, had broken up before the end of that year following its first U.S. tour, and -- under the leadership of surviving co-founder Robert Fripp (with non-performing member Peter Sinfield) -- had gone through several interim lineups, none of which had lasted more than a few months. Wallace, along with reedman and flautist Mel Collins and bassist/singer Boz Burrell, would become the first version of the group to concertize widely or leave behind more than one official album.

This version of King Crimson was a great performing unit, but its unity was always in doubt, especially when rumors began abounding of an impending breakup within six months of its formation. They toured extensively and won a serious following, but internally, their relations were a nightmare, as Wallace, Burrell, and Collins insisted on a degree of autonomy as composers that clashed with Fripp's musical vision of the band.

During the first six months of his work with Crimson, Wallace's playing broke some new ground on stage when Peter Sinfield, the group's lyricist and computer/electronics expert, used a VCS-3 synthesizer to process the sound ofWallace's drums. Not all of that work was necessarily captured to best advantage on the official live recordings of the period, but tapes of the band in concert from 1971-1972, released by Fripp himself, have revealed the full complexity ofWallace's playing, and the guitarist has noted the quality of his work in live performance.

Wallace, Burrell, and Collins turned out to enjoy working together more than they did working for Robert Fripp, and they quit the band en masse in the early spring of 1972. They immediately joined veteran British bluesman Alexis Kornerand Danish guitarist/singer Peter Thorup in an outfit called Snape, who recorded and toured central and northern Europe, playing a brand of blues-based rock that was far-removed from Crimson's sound.

Wallace continued working with Korner for two years and on four albums, and also played with Steve Marriott, Big Jim Sullivan, and Alvin Lee. In 1978, he became Bob Dylan's drummer, beginning with the Street Legal album and continuing on the subsequent tour and the Live at Budokan double-LP as well. During the '80s, Wallace played with such rock luminaries as Al Kooper, Ron Wood, David Lindley, his longtime friend Jon Anderson, Stevie Nicks,Lindsey Buckingham, Don Henley, Graham Nash, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, the Traveling Wilburys, and Roy Orbison.

In the '90s, he worked with Joe Walsh and Don Henley, but much of Wallace's activity centered around his own label, Artist Road Records of Santa Fe, NM. Wallace's work also moved more in the direction of jazz in tandem with his business partner in Artist Road, pianist Brian Trainor, and his gigs in those years included work with Larry Coryell. He was also a member of the sadly short-lived Los Angeles-based band the Teabags, which included ex-Yes guitaristPeter Banks, vocalist Jackie Lomax (late of the Undertakers and Badger), Kim Gardner (also of Badger), and singerGraham Bell. In 2003, Wallace returned to the repertory of King Crimson for the first time in more than 30 years when he joined the 21st Century Schizoid Band, a group of Crimson expatriates (sans Fripp), succeeded Michael Giles(whom he had succeeded, several times removed, in 1971, in the original group). That same year, Wallace released his one and only solo album, Happiness with Minimal Side Effects. He also began taking his King Crimson repertory into new and experimental directions with the Crimson Jazz Trio, who recorded two albums and toured for a short time. In 2006, Wallace was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, to which he succumbed early the following year. As an alumnus of a band with more than its share of top musicians, he had carved out a notably successful and diverse career across 40 years, ranging across rock, blues, and jazz. AMG.

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Henry Vestine - I Used To Be Mad! 2002

Guitarist Henry Vestine gained notoriety through his on-again, off-again tenure with boogie rockersCanned Heat. Recorded after a 1981 tour of Australia and New Zealand, Vestine and members ofCanned Heat entered a studio in New Zealand to record this affair. But the tapes were shelved for two decades. Yet at the behest of Canned Heat vocalist James Thornbury and a South African fan, this 2002 production marks Vestine's first solo recording. And while the hard-living artist passed away in 1997, these tracks duly intimate his ballsy chops and firmly implanted blues roots. The musicians work through soul-drenched rock numbers and a garage band-type rendition of "Johnny B. Goode," amid a straightforward version of the Canned Heat hit "Let's Work Together." However, one of the highlights features Vestine's soloing on the walking blues-type motif titled "Loquisimo," which is a piece that signifies one of the guitarist's several nicknames. Overall, Vestine's gritty and altogether animated line of attack is prominently displayed, although many of these tracks suffer from a lack of distinction. AMG.

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Swans - White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity 1991

The opening track "Better Than You" almost says it all: Starting with the wail of an infant, then suddenly crashing into surging music that mixes quick, energetic drums with bells and other instruments, the song turns into a dramatic acoustic guitar/percussion piece with Gira's brooding voice and Jarboe's haunting backing; after some re-developments of the themes, it ends with a beautiful restatement of the sung section with additional guitar and bell sounds. At once incredibly destructive and astoundingly life-affirming -- and worth the entire Burning World album several times over -- "Better Than You" demonstrates that Swans had emerged from their major-label fiasco even more powerful and artistic than before, aiming for an awesome, all-encompassing majesty in their music that the admittedly hypnotic earlier versions of the band, in their brute forcefulness, simply could not have achieved. Interestingly, a number of players from Burning World and other Bill Laswell associates participate onWhite Light, but here Gira as sole producer marshals everyone's collective efforts to heights that Laswell either was unwilling or unable to do. Also notably, Westberg is all but absent on guitar, with new arrival Clinton Steele taking the fore as the major instrumentalist after Gira and Jarboethemselves. Picking out all the highlights from such a stunning disc is practically impossible, but three of the flat-out classic marvels here are: "You Know Nothing," with its simply lovely introduction andGira's commanding singing; "Song for Dead Time," a gentle Jarboe-sung number filled out by a simple but effective string-synth arrangement; and "Failure," carried by a buried guitar strum, Gira's Sisyphean lyric, and brief, lush choruses. Simply put, this is out and out brilliant as the clear starting point for the second half of Swans' unique career. AMG.

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Josef Peters & Chris Murphy - Lost Town 2013

Lost Town’ tells the story of one man’s obsessive search to get closer to his deceased father by uncovering the story of his family’s town of Trochenbrod. First made famous by Jonathan Safron Foer’s ‘Everything Is Illuminated’, Trochenbrod was the only all-Jewish town to ever exist outside of Palestine. Trochenbrod’s 5000 Jews were obliterated by the Nazis, except for 33 townspeople who escaped the massacre there. This personal search triggers a resurgence of interest in the town and reconnects the few remaining survivors who hadn’t seen each other in over 60 years.

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Jonathan Fire Eater - Wolf Songs For Lambs 1997

DreamWorks actually courted Jonathan Fire*Eater, which is bizarre -- no matter how photogenic the quintet is, their music is simply not meant for the mainstream. Fortunately, the band's sound isn't drastically cleaned up on their major-label debut, Wolf Songs for Lambs, but that doesn't mean that the record is the powerhouse it could have been. The production is somewhat muted, meaning that the band never tears into the songs like they do in concert, but that turns out to be a minor complaint, because Jonathan Fire*Eater has such an individual, idiosyncratic sound that even weak moments sound kinetic. Through most of Wolf Songs for Lambs, the group comes across as a hybrid of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Pavement and the Make-Up -- they have the twisted, unpredictable songstructures of Malkmus' crew, the hipster blues of Spencer and the revolutionary zeal of the Make-Up -- and while the songwriting is uneven, the record still shows more style, substance and originality than most post-alternative guitar combos. It may not find Jonathan Fire*Eater fulfilling their potential, but Wolf Songs for Lambs remains a strong debut. AMG.

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Bill Bourne - Voodoo King 2002

Canadian singer/songwriter Bill Bourne is a stylist of a type that will draw in many, but put off others. His bluesy folk sound is introspective and gives the impression of being performed for the performer's benefit alone. He plays sparely, making each strum and plucked string sound hard-won, adding the occasional lonely countermelody by saxophonist Brett Miles. His singing is equally reflective, his poetic lyrics thrown away in murmurs. At his most raucous, as in "Portland," he suggests Tom Waits in his gritty folk-blues playing. It's a style that, were it coming from an aged Delta bluesman, would seem mysterious and authentic, but that seems received when coming from a journeyman Canadian. Happily, he adds other styles to the basic one, but while they provide variety, they also have the sense of having been acquired. "Holy Holy," for example, has a pleasant South African lilt, but doesn't seem any more true to the artist's roots. It also makes the album sound as if several different people are performing rather than one. Eight albums along, Voodoo King may not be the place to start withBourne, but it is a good example of his mix-and-match sense of stylistic borrowing. AMG. Thanks to B.!

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Soulsavers - The Light The Dead See 2012

Having traveled the dusty road previously with alt rock singer Mark Lanegan, U.K. production duoSoulsavers turn to the equally tortured soul Dave Gahan on The Light the Dead See, but this European union still opens their album with a mournful harmonica. Of course, Soulsavers have long been the production duo who prefers the sounds of spaghetti westerns to synthesizers, while making their guests sound as grand and grave as Leonard Cohen lost in the high lonesome, so this Depechein exile is a perfect fit. Brooding across canyons here, Gahan is somewhere between James Dean and a preacher in this atmosphere, and even if his talk of darkness, the Devil, saviors, and the price you pay has all been covered with the Mode, he still sounds renewed, making sliding the downward spiral sound as intoxicating as ever, even when he explains what waits for those who hit the bottom. It's the grand closing suite of "Take" (just guitar, voice, piano, and that harmonica, but as emotionally big as any of the orchestral numbers) and "Tonight" (an actual rock number designed to the return the listener to earth after such a dour journey) that seals the deal, making The Light the Dead See not just an exciting meeting of troubled minds, but a well designed full-length, offering a persuasive rainy day soundtrack that works even when there's not a cloud in the sky. AMG.

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