AM Research Results [fact.] (Page 7 of 9)

Naturalist and sound recordist Dr. Bernie Krause first surfaced during the early '60s as Pete Seeger's replacement in the legendary folk group the Weavers; by the middle of the decade he was working as a staff producer at Elektra Records, in 1968 teaming with jazz musician Paul Beaver to record the LP The Nonesuch Guide to Electronic Music, a groundbreaking excursion into experimental sounds and textures which made innovative use of early synthesizers. The duo of Beaver & Krause went on to record a series of electronic records before the former suffered a fatal heart attack in early 1975; in the wake of his partner's death, Krause turned to presiding over his company Wild Sanctuary, Inc., an organization devoted to, among other subjects, terrestrial and marine bio-acoustic recording and analysis. In 1979, he also issued his debut solo album, Citadels of Mystery. Krause spent the early '80s studying the science of bio-acoustics everywhere from Alaska to Kenya, recording environmental sounds from all corners of the globe. In 1985, he earned international attention when his recordings of humpback whale sounds proved successful in luring a lost whale named Humphrey from out of the Sacramento River Delta back to the Pacific Ocean. Krause also helped develop the Intelligent Sound System, described as "an automated system for public exhibitions and installations that creates non-redundant audio recreations of the natural environment." Additionally, he released dozens of environmental recordings spanning from Sounds of a Summer's Evening to Amazon Days, Amazon Nights to Ocean Wonders.

Scout Niblett is Nottingham, England's answer to all the brash, intelligent, and honest female songwriters that emerged from America during the early 21st century. Continually compared to Cat Power and fellow countrywoman PJ Harvey, Niblett (real name: Emma Louise) proved her own merit with a strong, stark voice and a penchant for spartan songs containing only drums and vocals. She also became known for her eccentricity, which included a fondness for wigs. Her lyrics, however, displayed a more serious side, creating their own place where love and its complimentary senses ruled and took on their own lives. While often playing solo, Niblett also utilized a revolving cast of bandmates from time to time, as well as the frequent assistance of producer Steve Albini.

Taking her stage name from Harper Lee's famed novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Niblett first emerged as a musician in 2001, having contributed to a split 7" with Songs: Ohia on the Indiana-based Secretly Canadian Records. Her first full-length, Sweet Heart Fever, soon followed. Another 7" was released in 2002, and 2003 saw the release of both the I Conjure Series EP and I Am, the latter of which was recorded by the revered engineer Steve Albini at his Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago. An American tour in spring 2005 with the Kills coincided the release of Kidnapped by Neptune, Niblett's debut for her new label, Too Pure. Continuing her partnership with Albini, she returned in October 2007 with This Fool Can Die Now (which also featured four duets with Will Oldham) and followed it up in 2010 with The Calcination of Scout Niblett, one of her most minimalist works to date.

Youthful Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist, producer, and songwriter David Vandervelde crafts '60s-influenced pop songs that bear the mark of legendary artists such as Marc Bolan, the Rolling Stones, Mickey Finn, and the Beatles. The West Michigan native has worked on numerous projects with fellow musician/engineer Jay Bennett (Wilco), and released a solo album called Moonstation House Band on the Secretly Canadian label in January 2007. Waiting for the Sunrise arrived the following year.

Yep! Didn't see anything wrong with how it was

Part of the idea behind the formation of The Collage was to emulate the Mamas & the Papas' lineup with a two-man, two-woman quartet of harmonizing singers. The group's sole self-titled album does indeed resemble the Mamas & the Papas in some ways, but has a yet more pronounced sunshine pop feel, as well as yet lusher production (even using some of the same Wrecking Crew musicians heard on records by the Mamas & the Papas and so many other Hollywood pop/rock sessions of the period, with Wrecking Crew saxophonist Steve Douglas producing). The songs have a sweeter tone, almost as if elements of the Mamas & the Papas and the 5th Dimension have been layered with production and songwriting a little more oriented toward an adult pop/variety entertainment audience. While four of the ten songs were written by the male half of the Collage (Ron Joelson and Jerry Careaga), there are also covers of compositions by notable figures on the Los Angeles pop/rock scene (Kenny Edwards and Bob Kimmel of the Stone Poneys, Roger Nichols, Tony Asher, Curt Boettcher, the Addrisi Brothers), though none of those tunes count among their more outstanding efforts. There are some mild psychedelic touches, but also some hammy vaudevillian ones, and as Careaga himself writes in his excellent lengthy liner notes to Now Sounds' expanded CD reissue, the Collage's original songs had showtune-style melodies. He also admits that the album wasn't "commercial or radio-friendly," and while that in and of itself isn't a knock against the LP, the songs aren't quite high-caliber enough to make this a top-flight record (though the psych-pop-circus feel of "Any Day's a Sunday Afternoon" might have made for the best attempt at a hit single). Overall, it's a bit above average for the sunshine pop genre; however, owing to the imaginative (if sometimes overly ornate) arrangements (by Perry Botkin, Jr., of early Nilsson fame) and strong, full harmonies. [The 2011 CD reissue on Now Sounds enhances the original album substantially with ten bonus tracks, including mono 45 versions of four songs from the LP and a half-dozen outtakes that generally have a slightly earthier bittersweet folk-pop/rock grounding, including a cover of Harry Nilsson's "Story of Rock and Roll."

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The commercial failure of The Free Design remains one of the most baffling mysteries in the annals of pop music -- with their exquisitely celestial harmonies, lighter-than-air melodies, and blissful arrangements, the group's records were on par with the work of superstar contemporaries like the Beach Boys, the Association, and the Cowsills, yet none of their singles even cracked the Hot 100. the Free Design originally comprised siblings Chris, Bruce, and Sandy Dedrick, natives of Delevan, NY, whose father Art served as a trombonist and arranger with Vaughn Monroe; when Chris moved to New York City in 1966 to attend the Manhattan School of Music, he recruited Bruce (now living on Long Island) and Sandy (a teacher in Queens) to form a folk group, and soon the trio emerged as a popular attraction on the Greenwich Village coffeehouse circuit. In time, Chris began composing original material for the Free Design to perform, and with the assistance of their father, the siblings cut a demo, ultimately signing with producer Enoch Light's audiophile label Project 3. The title track from their 1967 debut LP Kites Are Fun was also their first single, cracking the Top 40 on the Billboard adult contemporary chart but reaching only number 114 on the pop chart -- somewhat amazingly, it was the Free Design's biggest hit. Another Dedrick sister, Ellen, joined the group after graduating high school, making her debut on 1968's You Could Be Born Again. "2002: A Hit Song," from 1969's Heaven/Earth, satirically addressed the Free Design's continuing inability to make a commercial impact, but still the group's chart woes continued, and with their next effort, 1970's Songs for Very Important People, they targeted a new audience: children.Stars/Time/Bubbles/Love, also released in 1970, returned the Free Design to their adult constituency; after issuing One by One two years later, the group was dropped by Project 3, at which time they relocated from New York to Canada. There Chris Dedrick recorded a solo album, Be Free, which went unreleased; signing to the Ambrotype label, the Free Design recorded one final LP, 1973's There Is a Song, before disbanding in 1975. In the years to follow, Chris remained the most musically active sibling, forming the choral ensemble Star Scape Singers, as well as arranging and composing for the Canadian Brass. He also won a series of Gemini Awards for his scores for Canadian film and television productions. By the '90s, hipster favorites including Cornelius, Pizzicato 5, and Louis Philippe were regularly citing the Free Design as a key influence, resulting in the 1998 release of Kites Are Fun: The Best of the Free Design. The new millennium saw the Free Design convene for another album -- 2001's Cosmic Peekaboo -- which gathered Sandy, Chris, and Bruce Dedrick back together again.

Reverb Motherfuckers-Not Av. at AM t.i.p.t.yt-f.

Along with fellow songwriters such as Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, and Tom T. Hall, Mickey Newbury helped revolutionize country music in the 1960s and '70s by bringing new, broader musical influences as well as a frank, emotional depth to the music -- while at the same time never losing respect for tradition. Newbury infused his country music with haunting beauty and spiritual melancholy, creating an impressive collection of introspective, emotionally complex songs that are more spiritual cousins of the work of Leonard Cohen than that of Roy Acuff. (Newbury, in fact, calls himself a folksinger and has never toured with a band, preferring the ambience of a quiet coffeehouse.) The fact that many of his songs became hits for singers from Don Gibson to Elvis Presley was proof that the industry and the public were hungry for a change. Like many of his generation, however -- such as his friend Townes Van Zandt -- Newbury was better known as a songwriter than as a singer. Newbury recorded 15 albums over a nearly 30-year period -- right up to 1996's Lulled by the Moonlight, a limited-edition release sold by mail order -- but his soft, beautiful tenor voice rarely reached the charts.
Newbury spent his teens in Houston absorbing a wide range of music, learning to play guitar, and writing poetry, which he began reading in local coffeehouses. Folk music was on the rise at the time, and he soon turned to writing songs. He sang in a vocal group called the Embers during this time (they were briefly on Mercury) and played and hung out in Houston's black R&B and blues clubs, where he was nicknamed "the Little White Wolf" by Gatemouth Brown. Newbury joined the Air Force and was stationed in England. After his discharge, he turned back to music. In 1963, a friend of his landed him a writing job with Acuff-Rose, and Newbury moved to Nashville. During the next several years, he became friends with such singers as Roy Orbison, Roger Miller, Kris Kristofferson, and Townes Van Zandt. He was also instrumental in getting both Kristofferson and Van Zandt, among others, noticed in Nashville.

In 1966 Don Gibson had a Top Ten hit with Newbury's "Funny Familiar Forgotten Feelings," and Newbury's writing career was off and running. A long string of hit songs followed, recorded by such artists as Kenny Rogers & the First Edition ("Just Dropped In"), Eddy Arnold ("Here Comes the Rain, Baby"), and Andy Williams ("Sweet Memories"). Newbury's first album of his own was Harlequin Melodies for RCA in 1968, recorded in RCA's big Nashville studio (it's an album he later detested). He quickly got out of his RCA contract and instead turned to a small four-track studio run by engineer Wayne Moss in a converted garage (becoming, before the word "outlaw" ever became fashionable, one of the first Nashville artists to work outside the studio system). It was here that he recorded some of his best solo albums, starting with It Looks Like Rain for Mercury; this contained initial versions of two of his most enduring songs, "San Francisco Mabel Joy" (which he's recorded several times more) and "33rd of August."

But Mercury didn't support the album, and so Newbury switched to Elektra in 1970. With this label, he released a string of superb albums, including 'Frisco Mabel Joy, Heaven Help the Child, and the acoustic Live at Montezuma Hall; the latter was paired with a re-release of It Looks Like Rain. These contained such songs as "Cortelia Clark" (about a blind street singer), the almost painfully lonely "Frisco Depot," and "Heaven Help the Child," a sweeping mini-epic of a song that makes references to Fitzgerald and Paris in the 1920s. In 1972 Newbury had a Top 30 hit with "American Trilogy," a suite-like arrangement of "Dixie," "Battle Hymn of the Republic," and "All My Trials." The song later became a major hit for Elvis Presley and a standard in his repertoire.

Newbury recorded three albums for ABC/Hickory in the late '70s and was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 1980, but he was more and more becoming something of a recluse. He had given up concert touring some years before and also had moved to Oregon. In the 1980s, he only released two albums. In 1994 he resurfaced with Nights When I Am Sane, an acoustic album recorded live with guitarist Jack Williams. Since he was out of the spotlight for more than a decade, though, he wasn't well known in contemporary country circles. People familiar with his work, however, recognized Newbury as one of country music's most inspired and moving artists. After fighting respiratory illness for several years, Newbury passed away in the fall of 2002 at age 62.

The Go-Betweens were perhaps the quintessential cult band of the '80s: they came from an exotic locale (Brisbane, Australia), moved to a major recording center (in their case, London) in a sustained bid to make a career out of music, released album after album of music seemingly tailor-made for the radio in spite of their having little use for contemporary Top 40 musical/lyrical formulas, and earned considerable critical praise and a small but fervent international fan base. Although The Go-Betweens were absent throughout the '90s before re-forming in the new millennium, both of the band's songwriters embarked on respectable solo careers in the interim and, while rarely reaching the heights The Go-Betweens scaled, they still managed to uphold the group's legacy.
Robert Forster and Grant McLennan began as a pair of teenagers obsessed with the earthy rock of Dylan, CCR, and the Velvet Underground and encouraged by the Australian punk of the Saints. As collected on The Able Label Singles, their first two singles show a fondness for scruffy, British Invasion/new wave-influenced pop/rock. Picking up permanent drummer Lindy Morrison, they recorded their debut LP, moved to England, and signed a short-lived deal with Rough Trade. Going for a lush, tuneful sound crammed with nonstandard rock instrumentation, they went on to record five more excellent LPs. Though their pre-Beggars Banquet albums were traditionally hard to find in the States, that label finally reissued all six albums on CD in 1996.

In 2000 the band reunited and released a new album, The Friends of Rachel Worth, which also featured all three members of Sleater-Kinney. It wasn't just a fluke, as the band recorded follow-up albums released in 2003 (Bright Yellow Bright Orange) and 2005 (Oceans Apart). Documenting a 2005 concert in their hometown, the DVD/CD package That Striped Sunlight Sound arrived in early 2006, just a few months before the death of McLennan in May.

Depending on what you care to believe, Heavy Blanket was either a new project launched by Dinosaur Jr. guitarist J Mascis in 2012, or a band from his teenage years who, thanks to a byzantine series of misadventures, were unable to record their first album until a quarter-century after they began writing material. According to Heavy Blanket's official biography, in 1984 Mascis was 19 years old and becoming disenchanted with hardcore punk as his band Deep Wound was winding down. Eager to play heavier and more adventurous music, Mascis teamed up with two high school buddies, drummer Pete Cougar and bassist Jonny Pancake, a pair of unrepentant stoners who'd been expelled from school for using a tuba to smoke weed. Playing music informed by Jimi Hendrix, Blue Cheer, and obscure psychedelia, the trio was named Heavy Blanket and began making plans to record an album after writing six extended, guitar-heavy songs. However, Pancake suffered a serious head injury while swimming in an abandoned quarry and dropped out of music, moving into his grandmother's basement as he recovered. Pancake's accident put Heavy Blanket on hiatus, and when Cougar ended up in prison after repeatedly passing counterfeit money at a convenience store, Mascis gave up on the group and moved on to other musical pursuits. While on vacation in 2011, Mascis discovered that Pancake was working at a ski resort after finally making a full recovery (though he had come to believe his accident happened because the future members of Pearl Jam were plotting against him). Mascis and Pancake set out to find Cougar and learned he was living in a half-way house in Ohio after finally being released from prison. Cougar also had a cassette of one of Heavy Blanket's rehearsals, and the trio reunited to finally record the album they'd intended to make in 1984. Given the improbable nature of Heavy Blanket's story, some writers speculated that Mascis might have fabricated their story, especially since no photos of Heavy Blanket were released. Also, the style of the bass and drum work on the album bears a strong similarity to Mascis' occasional efforts as his own rhythm section on several Dinosaur Jr. recordings, as well as his drumming with the groups Sweet Apple, Witch, and Upsidedown Cross.

If you slowed down the tempo of indie rock bands like Pavement or Sebadoh, it would probably sound like the unhurried debut from Havergal. Ryan Murphy (who also runs Western Vinyl records, through which he released his first two 7"s) steers these lo-fi arrangements, sounding like a lonely soul from Slackerville. His drum machine provides static, while Murphy's lyrics are often a downer, singing verses such as "hey kids don't grow up like me/'cause I haven't stretched a single inch."

Dewey Mahood is all over the place. Not only is he a member of Eternal Tapestry, Gärden Söund (with Barn Owl), Edibles (who released a cassette on Not Not Fun a couple years back), Bloodbiker, and Jackie-O Motherfucker, but since 2008, he’s also released a steady stream of solo music under the name Plankton Wat via labels like Digitalis, Stunned, Sloow Tapes, and DNT. He’s probably outside his Portland home right now, thinking up ways to reconcile what he sees with the psychedelic, cosmic drone improv that constitutes his music. Which is in fact the approach he took for Spirits, his second full-length album set for release May 15 on Thrill Jockey. As he said in a recent interview, “The music is inspired by the Pacific Northwest environment, the mountains and coastline, the weather, sky and clouds, and my closest friends.” With track titles like “Vista,” “Evening Sky,” “Orange Cloud,” and “Islands,” it’s clear that Mahood is looking out rather than in for inspiration.

While the video for “Spirits” showcased the album’s darker moments of electric-guitar weaving and rhythmic meditations, “Fabric of Life” offers respite from the heaviness with an uplifting, fingerpicked acoustic guitar, its melodies flirting with a persistent, warm drone that acts more to bend the harmony than anchor it to any center. The result is mildly uncomfortable yet completely accessible, a harmonic embrace that continually threatens to fold into the darkness. And thankfully, it eventually does, when a more dissonant, sinister drone arises from the shadows and devours it, slower and gentler than you’d expect.

I can't say that I can keep up with all of the beats these days. Seems like everyone and their mom has a Roland MS-1 and a crate full of wacky samples to go with it. But as I recently came into a number of collections of beats, and with the increasing presence of a number of DJs/beatmakers in my current location, I felt a big ups to LA's Ras G was necessary. Not the first or the the last to make afrofuturistic soundscapes and pulses, Ras G nonetheless has a fantastic grip on the genre both musically and in terms of his image: just look at the album cover. The dude is rad.

And so are the beats. Totally atmospheric, confused, drowning in noise and broken, delayed rhythms which take the shattered sounds of original dub into the 21st century, scattered and crashing and swirling around complex concepts about humanity, race, technology, duplication, art, and probably a whole host of other stuff. Unlike many ambient and dubstep musicians, Ras himself is always present behind the plates and samples he uses. You can sometimes hear his fingers slipping or a miscount, but from that imperfection comes a supreme self-awareness. Dysfunction, like dissonance, are part of the contemporary playbook for music like this, where fracture and memory reign in two intersecting arcs which create the heady sphere that Ras produces in. Do yourself a favor and light up a Phillie, put on your nicest pair of headphones, and dim the lights. Go Ras!

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