[#TBT] THE CHARLATANS UK / THE CHARLATANS (1995)

THE CHARLATANS UK - THE CHARLATANS (BEGGARS BANQUET) 1995

By; Randy Nieto

The self titled album from the Charlatans was their fourth effort and last record they released before the death of their original keyboardist Rob Collins. This record really shows how much of a key player Rob Collins was in the band, as most of the songs prominently feature leading riffs on the Hammond, Wurlizter, D6, clavinet, and piano. Initially a part of the British psychedelic shoegaze craze of the late 80’s and early 90’s, the Charlatans were now showing musical influences from reggae to gospel, but still managed to keep a Brit Pop guitar sound in league with Blur and Oasis. Tim Burgess’s vocal melodies on the record are infectious, and he hits high notes and falsettos with ease. Martin Blunt bass work is heavy and deep, it’s clear the band was listening to a lot of dub and hip hop around this time. Their subtle blending of different styles with heavy Brit Pop overtones has made this record a favorite among many music lovers. Unfortunately their most excellent drummer Jon Brookes passed away just last year. Check out Nine Acre Court Below (the song starts about 1 minute in).

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[#TBT] CAN / FUTURE DAYS (1973)

CAN - FUTURE DAYS (UNITED ARTISTS) 1973

By; Randy Nieto

Can is one of those bands that sound like a bunch of guys who love Fela Kuti smoked pot in their garage and made music on the instruments their moms bought for them from Montgomery Ward. Actually, members of the group were classically trained German musicians, but a trip to New York City “corrupted” founding member Irwin Schmidt, as he put it. (You’re not the first, Irwin.) Irwin wanted to foray into contemporary music, which at the time in Europe was composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez. Boulez and Stockhausen were actually doing pretty cool stuff, but after you smoke a joint with Andy Warhol and Lou Reed, you realize how relative “cool” really is. At times Future Days sounds a lot like Air’s Moon Safari, but without the heavy bass or serenading vocals. Melding tropicalia, krautrock, afrobeat, and classical influences, Future Days served to really cement together genres and create a mellow yet highly progressive sound. Moonshake is the only song on the record that really serves to fit a typical pop song formula. This doesn’t mean the rest of the album is sub-par, in fact quite the opposite. Future Days exemplifies how disciplined these guys really were. This record belongs in every music lover's collection. Check out Moonshake below.

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[#TBT] AIR / MOON SAFARI (1998)

AIR - MOON SAFARI (VIRGIN) 1998
By; Randy Nieto

Little did Air know that when they released their first major full length debut Moon Safari on Virgin records, that they would be unleashing a maelstrom of electro bands that would follow in the millennium that was to come. They landed on the scene as music was just starting to take a decisive turn back to the synthesizers of the early 80s, a reaction to the years of grunge and hard rock we were all forced to endure, and Moon Safari was poised to turn things back around. I remember whenever I put on ‘Le Femme D’Argent’ my girlfriend would always remark “Oh, you’re putting that song from TAXI on again.” Looking back now I guess the keyboard solo does sound a little bit like the TAXI theme song. Regardless of my girlfriend’s zingers, this is an amazing album. The bass lines on this record dance around the songs slow and beautifully, transcending to an ethereal level when combined with the wash of the synthesizers. Beth Hirsch’s vocals on All I Need are haunting and reminiscent of Beth Gibbons of Portishead, but with less kill myself and more let’s make love. These guys are like Portishead after years of therapy. Just listen for yourself. Below is the entire album for you to relax in the tub with a glass of wine. Enjoy!

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[#TBT] THROWING MUSES / THE REAL RAMONA (1991)

THROWING MUSES - THE REAL RAMONA (4AD/SIRE RECORDS) 1991
By; Randy Nieto

Our throwback piece this week is for Throwing Muses’ “The Real Ramona”.  I remember not too many years before it came out we were reading Ramona Quimby books in school, and I always wondered if this record was named after those books. This is the last album the Muses made before Tanya Donnelly left the band to form Belly and took bassist Fred Abong with her. The first song on the record, Counting Backwards, starts with a loud snare roll and cascading guitars. Seriously, just the words “cascading guitars” is enough to make me excited and curious to listen to any song. Kristen Hersh’s vocals somehow manage to be dry yet menacing at the same time, like an ex-girlfriend delivering the punchiest zingers about you to her friends.  In the second song, “Him Dancing”, she hits the high notes and falsettos just right, and adds a bendy twang at just the right spots. The album production focuses heavily on guitars and drums, ala Steve Albini. Which makes sense, because these guys were tight with the Kim Deal, who worked with Albini on Surfer Rosa and used him on the Breeder’s debut “Pod”. Kristen and Tanya are incredible songwriters, and it is clear this pop-rock record was an immediate precursor to grunge and all the crap that came after. It’s unfortunate the record companies were still creaming their pants over shitty two hit wonders like Bryan Adams and C+C Music factory and not pushing guitar pop aficionados like Throwing Muses and the Pixies. I guess it doesn’t matter because everyone is downloading music now and those A&R nerds are out of a job, right? Right? Please, let us not get into that dirty talk. Instead, let’s just listen to the beauty that is the Throwing Muses below.

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[#TBT] SLEATER KINNEY / CALL THE DOCTOR (1996)

SLEATER KINNEY - CALL THE DOCTOR (CHAINSAW) 1996

By: Randy Nieto

Before Savages, before Haim, before Lady Gaga or Katy Perry, there was Sleater Kinney. Rock critics in the 90’s pinned them as pioneers of the “Riot Grrl” movement, probably due to their simultaneously inspiring and melting of faces with roaring guitars riffs, pounding drums, and screeching vocals. From my experiences they have always been a polarizing group: lead singer Corin Tucker’s singing can be quite shrill, and it seems most people either love them or hate them. Regardless of the vocals, the power of the music cannot be denied. To me they were like a female fronted Fugazi, with riffs coasting and bouncing from chord to chord, increasing and decreasing in ferocity, and Carrie Brownstein often adding background vocals that ranged from just talking to straight up yelling into the microphone. Later they would explore more of a pop edge in “Dig Me Out”, but Call the Doctor was their first fully realized punk rock record. Their lyrics range from sarcastic to confrontational, fantasizing about Joey Ramone (and seriously, Joey Ramone? Did they ever take a hard look at that guy?) to more poignant metaphors about swallowing spiders and lies in “Anonymous”. With 12 songs clocking in at 30 minutes, the songs are short punk rock gems, maybe a little slower than typical punk, but this is what lets them explore more complexities in their songwriting. Although this record was written in the juvenile stage of the band’s lifespan, it remains, in this humble writers opinion, one of their best efforts. I can seriously listen to the whole thing over and over again, and I never have never gotten sick of it, something I truly cannot say for many records, even ones I love. Check out “Call the Doctor” below:

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[#TBT] R.E.M. - RECKONING (1984)

R.E.M. - RECKONING (I.R.S.) 1984

By: Randy Nieto

Several albums before they shat all over their dark and brooding legacy with “Shiny Happy People” and “Stand”, R.E.M. released “Reckoning”, a beautifully written and lyrically poetic record. R.E.M. was the quintessential college rock band of the early 80’s: they had already practically invented indie rock (which could be argued), but the songs on Reckoning proved to be more complicated and somber than ever before. Lyrical gems like ‘They shifted the statues for harboring ghosts’ in “Harborcoat” and ‘These rivers of suggestion are driving me away’ in “South Central Rain” inspired many 80’s and 90’s college kids to join bands and begin writing poetry in their spiral notebooks. There is a moment of brightness in “Second Guessing”, and a weird, tongue-in-cheek, funky intro to "Don't Go Back to Rockville", but really that's all you get, so you better have something to be sad about. You know how there are those albums where every single song is amazing, and you play the whole thing over and over again until you get sick of it? This is one of those records. The songwriting is inventive, original, and fun(in the most depressing sense of the word). Clearly this was the album they fell in love with the minor chord. If you are not familiar with “Reckoning”, it's never too late to start loving this 30 year old record. To get you going, I posted a full stream of the album below.

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[#TBT] BRIAN ENO - HERE COME THE WARM JETS (1974)

BRIAN ENO - HERE COME THE WARM JETS (ISLAND RECORDS) 1974

By: Randy Nieto

Here Come the Warm Jets is Brian Eno’s debut solo album. Simply released under the name “Eno” and affectionately titled after a satisfying trip to the washroom, Warm Jets features members of King Crimson and Roxy Music. Needle in the Camel’s Eye is the first song and the album’s most popular single, but some would say (some being me) not even close to being the best tune on the record. Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch has a clear vocal influence from Brian Ferry, no doubt from Eno’s tenure in Roxy Music. Cindy Tells Me sounds like The Velvet Underground if they simply turned up the gain on their amplifiers. Baby’s on Fire, a poppy and sarcastic song, dares the listener to take Brian Eno seriously, and how can you not, with overly melodic lyrics and guitar solos that totally shred in between each verse.

The most amazing thing about this album is not the catchy lyrics, wicked solos, or glam rock sound of the 1970’s, but really the innovation of production on the record. Experimental guitar noise weaves in and out of each song, and the swooshing soundscapes surface at just the right times that would bring chills down any audiophile's spine. Here Come the Warm Jets is the album Radiohead wish they had made and probably came closest to on Ok Computer. I’m not sure why Brian Eno left Roxy music, maybe he got tired of people mistaking him for Riff Raff from Rocky Horror Picture Show. Or maybe all the lipstick and eyeshadow finally seeped into his brain. Whatever the reason, we are glad he did, because we wouldn’t have a lot of the great music we have today were it not for this revolutionary musician. If you have not heard it yet, check out "Needle in the Camel's Eye" below.

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[#TBT] GUIDED BY VOICES – FOREVER SINCE BREAKFAST (1986)

GUIDED BY VOICES – FOREVER SINCE BREAKFAST (I WANNA RECORDS) 1986

By: Randy Nieto

“It’s been a long, long, long, long, long, long time…”. In fact, it has been quite some time since Guided By Voices released their debut EP Forever Since Breakfast (27 years to be exact). I distinctly remember putting this record on at my apartment and my roomate’s brother asking me if I was listening to R.E.M. The opening track, Land of Danger, totally shreds. The vocals are catchy and actually do sound a little like Michael Stipe. “Let’s Ride” is not as catchy, but has a playful innocence to it. The chorus is pretty cool, with a little guitar refrain that frames it nicely. “Like I do” is an acoustic number I do not really care for, but then “Sometimes I Cry” picks the record right the fuck back up with a clear, obvious influence by The Who. It’s awesome and catchy as hell.

I’m going to stop here and say two things… 1. The guitar sound on the record gets a little tiring. There isn’t really any variation, and you get the feeling you’re listening to the same chords over and over again. 2. That being said, the songs are very well written and super catchy. You can easily see the seed of indie rock planted with influences from R.E.M., Wire, and The Who. I can picture beer bellied guys in Ohio in 1986 who love drinking PBR and head banging to Zeppelin being totally into this record. The rest of the EP is really good, but I’m going to let you find that out on your own. If you like indie rock, classic rock, or GBV, this is one you should check out.

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