Exploring unheralded rock songs from many genres including classic rock, hard rock, psych, garage, metal, proto-punk, punk, post-punk, and the occasional blues tune...
While this tune is a great rockabilly cover by a Japanese band, to me it will always bring me back to where I first heard it in Kill Bill Vol. 1. There is something about Quentin Tarantino's use of music that hits me in the right place.
Since the movie's release, the 5.6.7.8's have managed to continue a career that has paid homage to the roots music they love. Check out their website to see what they've been up to.
If you wake up on a Sunday morning and are steeping tea before your day of antiquing, then do not put on some Betty Davis to provide the soundtrack to your morning. Betty Davis's vocals are not for the faint of heart. Her songs demand your full attention. Once you give in to that, her music is pure funky goodness.
While Betty made a few great funk albums in the 70's, her biggest effect on the history of music was probably when she introduced her then husband, Miles Davis, to Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone. Many, including Miles himself, believe that Betty's influence led him to his electric period.
Whatever her influence, check out Betty from 1974.
How about some modern day psychedelia for your Monday? Thee Oh Sees have been around since the late 90's, and have had a very fluid lineup with the exception of the band's founder and frontman, John Dwyer. Dwyer, like Ty Segall, is one of those rare recording artists who manages to put out albums at a steady pace, ignoring industry conventions.
1969's Stax release, Jammed Together, features musicians at the beginning, peak, and sunset of their respective careers in the music industry. Of course, I am talking about Steve Cropper of the MG's and later of the Blues Brothers' band, Albert King, the best blues' player to pick up an electric guitar, and Pops Staples, the patriarch of the gospel Staples' Singers.
Here, there is nothin too fancy, just some real smooth blues.
British garage/blues/pysch/hard rockers' The Groundhogs had achieved some level of fame in the U.K. without ever really becoming noticed in the U.S. They have recorded with Eric Clapton and toured with the Rolling Stones. The peak of their work was in the early 1970's and the first incarnation of the band called it quits by 1976.
Master's Apprentices were an Australian band that started out in the mid 60's as a garage band, but would transform into more of a hard rock/psych band by the early 70's. They broke up by 1972, but left a nice body of work.
Check out this track, Easy to Lie. The hook sounds a bit like Joe Walsh's Turn to Stone which was released a year later. You decide.
Captain Beefheart is, admittedly, an acquired taste. Over the last three decades, I've tried to get into his music on a few occasions, but I wasn't ready. Finally, about two years ago, I started listening to him again when I downloaded the extended sessions for Sun Zoom Spark. I was blown away by the music on that release and listened to nothing else for days. I have since taken a dive into other parts of the Captain's discography.
I could have picked from about a hundred tracks to be featured in this space, as most of his work is under appreciated. I ended up selecting a song that is a bit more easy to listen to for a Captain Beefheart novice. It also give me chills. It was also a song that was shelved for eighteen years, having been recorded in 1966 but not released until 1984.
Often classified as a prog rock band, this Genoa, Italy-based band actually sounds more like a psych/hard rock band. They probably got the "prog rock" label because they formed in 1971 instead of 1967. As it were, Garybaldi would only keep it together for a couple of albums and disband by 1973.
The only thing keeping Riot from being classified in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) is that they were from New York. Otherwise, the sound is pretty similar to those British giants of early 80's metal.
Here is the title track from Riot's third album, released in 1981. It smokes.
The Scientists were an Australian garage/punk band from the late 70's/80's. To me, they sound like a cross between new wave and the Cramps. Here they are from 1983 with their single, We Had Love.
Listen to some music by Spoon that there's no doubt that you are listening to music from the 90's. To me, Spoon's second album, A Series of Sneaks, sounds like an amalgamation of the late 90's sound. I like it, but I definitely have to be in the mood for it. Today, I am...
I imagine that it would be hard to get noticed coming up in the San Francisco rock scene in the late 60's when the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother, Quicksilver, and other bands were soaking up the attention. That may have been the case here with Black Pearl.
They did manage to make some good rock music in a short time, though. Check out this track from their only full length release.
Before Kevin Cronin and his power ballad sensibilities joined R.E.O. Speedwagon and launched them to 1970's arena rock fame, the Wagon was just a band that could boogie. The recently late lead guitarist, Gary Richrath did a lot of writing for that first album. He also played some smokin' guitar. Here is one of the best tracks from their debut album.
For years, I had heard of Be Bop Deluxe, but never heard any of their material on the radio. I recently had the opportunity to obtain some audiophile quality LP's, two of which were from Be Bop Deluxe. So, my first experience with the band's music was as good as it was going to get. The first album, Axe Victim, did not disappoint. It has a real crisp rock sound with a hint of prog. In fact, I would recommend the album as a gateway for someone looking to listen to more pure prog rock.
I recently stumbled upon this decade old pop rock with a tinge of trippiness. Pleasure Club released a couple of albums in the early 2000's before disbanding. The lead singer, James Hall, still records and tours. His web page is here.
When I was a teenager I was in love with the Beatles(I mean head over heels). As such, in addition to gobbling up all of their albums(CDs), I also read a bunch of books about the band. When I read these books, I learned a bit about their record company, Apple. I knew that the first outside band signed to Apple was Badfinger. I also knew that Badfinger's big hit, Come and Get It, was written by Paul McCartney. So, I ended up knowing a couple of Badfinger songs due to my love of the Beatles. That would be all that I knew about Badfinger for a few decades.
Digging into their catalog a little deeper, I'm realizing that this was a really good pop rock band. For me, the key to being a good pop rock band is to be a little more rock than pop. Here is a good example of that from their second album, 1970's No Dice.
Back in April, I proposed a trivia question here. Following up on that question, I'll ask it again, "Name the Jack Bruce power trio featuring a virtuoso lead guitarist that released a few heavy albums over forty years ago?" This time, the answer is different, though. After Cream was done, but before Jack Bruce joined forces with Leslie West and Corky Laing, he appeared on an album in with the Tony Williams Lifetime. This power trio would consist of Bruce on bass, Jazz fuzion extraordinaire John McLaughlin on guitar and the aforementioned Tony Williams on drums.
In my mid-twenties, I hung out at the Silver Cue pool hall in Woburn, Massachusetts sharpening my skills. Like many pool halls, they had a jukebox. The usual fare of music played was grunge and classic rock. So, I would automatically notice if there was any deviation from that format. I remember hearing Beck's Loser for the first time and thinking that was quite different. After a few plays, and memorizing some of the silly lines, I picked up his Mellow Gold CD. I remember liking the aformentioned Loser, Beercan, and Fuckin' With My Head. I don't remember listening much to the rest of the album, though. However, it was enough to make me purchase his 1996 release, Odelay, while only having really heard one song.
After listening to the whole thing, I was blown away. I thought(think) that this was a concept album for the 90's. For me, it was probably in the top five albums of that decade. I jumped off the Beck bandwagon by the time Sea Change came about in 2002. For some reason, his music hasn't resonated with me since then. That does not diminish my enjoyment of his earlier work. Here is my favorite track from his masterpiece.
Rory Gallagher may be the best guitarist to come out of Ireland. In fact, he may be one of the best blues guitarists ever. And he is largely under-appreciated. Here he is in 1973 playing a rocker on the Old Grey Whistle Test.
Back in the last days of MTV playing music videos, I remember seeing Daisy Chainsaw's Love Your Money video and thinking that it was great that a punk band had a video. Soon, though, videos would be a thing of the past, replaced with reality programming.
Daisy Chainsaw survived a five year run, touring with the likes of Hole and Mudhoney. Here is the band with their biggest "hit" from their debut album.
The early 70's had so much to give, there just wasn't enough time to enjoy it all as it was happening. I feel this way because I just discovered this English rock band from that era. I've just listened to a bunch of their songs online and wonder how I've never heard of them before. They had many lineups over their early years. Perhaps this inconsistency led to the band to not achieving liftoff.
Orang-Utan were a short-lived English band that blended a psych sound with the hard rock that was coming into vogue at the dawn of the 70's. The double lead guitar of Mick Clarke and Sid Fairman really define the sound of the band's only full length release.
Despite the silly song name, this tune smokes. Check it out.
Mighty Baby must have seemed like a good band name back in 1968 at the height of the psych rock scene. It certainly didn't stand the test of time, as the name sounds ridiculous now to my ears. However, that does not discount my enjoyment of this English band's work, which consisted of two largely forgotton LPs. They are definitely worth seeking out.
Check out this track off of their self-titled debut album.
This is glam rock at it's best(or among the best). Slade were super popular in the UK in the early 70's, but not so much in the US. That's a shame because this band needed more airplay. They knew how to party.
Corpus Christi's Zakary Thaks were another 60's garage band that had a few good singles, but just couldn't achieve liftoff. Luckily, some of their work got re-released in the 90's on compilation CDs.
I really do love Lynyrd Skynyrd. They were the absolute best Southern Rock band(Sorry Allman Brothers). I got into them early, during my classic rock radio phase. I ended up buying a bunch of their cassettes and found the music that wasn't played on the radio was just as good as the songs that were gracing the airwaves.
When thinking of this blog post, I was considering two Skynyrd songs. (The runner up was Don't Ask Me No Questions). However, I ended up with On the Hunt because of a distinct personal memory of the song. I was in high school and my mother insisted that I go away for the weekend with her to Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester, MA. It's a very nice place, but as a restless teen, I was bored spending a weekend in a motel with Mom. I remember taking the car by myself to some random convenient store by the beach to buy some magazines or something. My mother's car radio was broken, so I had my boombox sitting in the front seat and I was cranking Lynyrd Skynyrd's Gold & Platinum compilation tape. I remember just sitting in the car listening to On The Hunt with the windows rolled down thinking I was cool. Enjoy this classic tune.
How about some Satanic prog rock with a splash of horns for your Friday? Okay, well here's an English band that often got confused with Black Sabbath in the late sixties. They certainly didn't have the staying power of the mighty Sabbath, but an interesting sound nonetheless.
If you're looking for something fancy, there's nothing to see here. Here is some good ole mid - 70's rock from Calgary's finest, Hammersmith. Feels to me like a precursor to some of the hair bands that would come up in the next decade(but in a good way)...
By the mid-90's, in a post grunge world, I remember searching for the next big thing. I was no longer beholden to classic rock and now believed that modern times had the capability to produce quality rock n' roll. And, for a while, this held to be true.
One of the new bands that I started listening to was Elastica. I remember hearing this English band on the radio and rushing out to buy the CD. I played the self-titled debut in constant rotation for a few months. I remember being disappointed that they didn't seem to come up with a follow-up. Apparently, there was some exhaustion and lineup turmoil in the ensuing years. By 2001, they called it quits.
Here they are with a video of one of their bigger hits, Connection.
My first memory of Ike and Tina Turner was actually from MTV. I don't know if you remember, but in the early days of MTV, through maybe 1988 or so, programmers would occasionally sprinkle classic rock videos culled from live shows, tv appearances, and such. So, I can remember seeing Ike and Tina, along with the Ikettes, covering CCR's Proud Mary with some cheap psychedelic video effects. I remember thinking that their version blew away the original.
By 1973, the Ikettes were largely a thing of the past. Ike and Tina had a few more records in them. Here is one of my favorites. I would have just played the studio version, but when you get a chance to see Tina Turner live in her prime, you watch...
