Insights, observations, cheap gags.
Sorry for the infrequency of posts these days – you see, I now have a baby in a gray flannel diaper to tend to now. So today’s song (the title at least) should be relevant for all the new parents out there. From his 1981 album Cured, it’s Genesis alum Steve Hackett with “Overnight Sleeper”.
Just when I start to pat myself on the back for expanding my musical horizons so much over recent years, along comes an album like The Secret Language of Subways to set me straight. The record, a collaboration between English-born composer and vocalist Amy X Neuberg and the Cello ChiXtet, is billed as “a song cycle about the inane and perpetually unfinished businesses of love and war – and New York.” I’m not really sure what that means, but it sure sounds impressive.
Make no mistake, this album is definitely Art with a capital A. The opening track, “One Lie”, unfolds slowly before reaching an almost martial crescendo. It sets the stage for Neuberg’s elastic, Kate Bush-like vocals and the playing of the ChiXtet (Elizabeth Vandervennet, Elaine Kreston, and Jessica Ivry), which is alternately subtle and forceful – sometimes within the space of a few minutes. Neuburg is a classically trained singer, and while her multi-octave vocals are the driving force of this album she contributes a lot by way of electronics, looping, and percussion.
…keep digging Album review: Amy X Neuburg & The Cello ChiXtet – The Secret Language of Subways
To no one’s surprise, last year’s round of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees included not one progressive rock act. This despite the millions of albums sold, the countless musicians inspired, and the long-lasting impact of the genre’s best. Hell, can anyone under 50 even name two Dave Clark Five songs? Yeah, me neither.
But to be fair, I can understand why someone not very familiar with prog rock might be inclined to write it off as so much boring instrumental wankery and bastardized classical music pastiches. But to paint an endlessly rich style of music with such a broad brush is not only lazy, it’s downright inaccurate. So to show that prog ain’t all clinical sweep arpeggios and no heart, I’ve put together a mixtape to showcase the gentler side of the genre.
In a neat little coincidence, I surpassed 50,000 tracks played on my last.fm account right around the time this humble little web log logged its 50,000th visitor. As I mentioned when I hit the 10,000-visitor mark in April 2008, the interest in this site continues to amaze me. But don’t worry, I won’t let delusions of adequacy get in the way of posting album covers, random scans of old pieces of paper, and mildly funny original content on a haphazard basis.
I just wanted to take another opportunity to thank all of you who have stopped by over the last few years, whether you’re a regular in these here parts or just a drive-by visitor. And I’d like to give a special shout-out to #50,000, coming to us from New York City and checking out the 2nd part of my Get to Know entry on Genesis. Hope you enjoyed it my friend!
Tucked away on a bootleg Genesis concert recording from 1980 is this little gem I want to share with you. The concert was aired on BBC Radio in June 1980 and this commercial is for former bandmate Peter Gabriel’s third self-titled album – retroactively referred to as Peter Gabriel III or Melt. The record was Gabriel’s strangest and darkest effort to date, and this radio ad brilliantly plays that up. It intersperses song clips with snippets of people talking about how they use the music to scare pigeons or to put their baby to sleep.
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God I love British humor. Sorry, humour.
As a bonus I’ve included the rest of the commercial break. In it you get ads for a rental Ford Fiesta, a concert (featuring Bob Marley & The Wailers, Average White Band, Q-Tips, and the Joe Jackson Band), and the Victoria Street location of Army & Navy Stores.
OK, it’s been a few weeks (more like four or five) since the last entry in this series, but what can I say? I needed a break I guess. But now that summer is a distant memory and the first frost of the season is almost upon us (in central Jersey anyway), I found some inspiration.
This week’s featured album art is the 1976 Genesis classic, Wind & Wuthering. And I think you can see why.
Beautiful, isn’t it? Reminds me a lot of Fleetwood Mac’s Bare Trees actually, another album I really like. It fits perfectly with the slightly chilly mood of the album, which turned out to be guitarist Steve Hackett’s last with Genesis (leaving the trio of Phil Collins, Tony Banks, and Mike Rutherford).
And surprise – this is another Hipgnosis effort! Doesn’t look like one, does it? Colin Elgie was responsible for this understated and pretty effort, for those keeping score at home.
The autumnal feel of the album cover extends to the back as well:
Before he released the juggernaut So album in the ’80s, before he became one of the West’s great World Music ambassadors, and before he emerged as a humanitarian and all-around do-gooder, Peter Gabriel was just a guy trying to find his own musical direction after leaving Genesis.
The first step on that path was Gabriel’s self-titled debut, released in February 1977. It’s a fascinating document of a uniquely talented artist willing to try anything – even barbershop – to differentiate his work from that of his old band. And man, that cover…
“Guy sitting in a car with raindrops on it” doesn’t sound like the formula for a good album cover, but this album (retroactively referred to by many as Car) proves otherwise. The color scheme, which appealed to Gabriel, appeals to me as well. The creepiness factor can’t be ignored here either – is he sleeping in that car? Maybe dead?
And by the way, this is another Hipgnosis design. An alternate idea Gabriel attempted was to wear mirrored contact lenses that made his eyes look like steel balls. That would’ve been cool to see as well, but I like what we got.
Yakety Yak