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...
It's been a while since I've featured any jazz fusion in this space. So, what better way to get back into the style than this hard charging tune from drummer Alphonse Mouzon's third album featuring one Tommy Bolin on guitar.
Swans has been around, on and off, since 1983. It has been referred to more as an ongoing experimental rock project than a traditional rock group. The only consistent member has been founder and guitarist, Michael Gira. In fact, Swans has included 28 other musicians over the years, including Thurston Moore for a spell. After a decade plus hiatus, Gira reformed Swans to produce the 2010 album, My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky.
Here is My Birth off of that album.
Today's Deep Rock Mining entry is a dose of punk rock, Boston-style. DMZ was only around for a couple of years, in true punk rock style. Here the music is punk, but with some other throwback styles, ranging from garage rock to a Stooges' sound.
Over ten years before the Runaways would seemingly be the first teenage all girl rock band, the Pleasure Seekers were doing the same thing in Detroit. Led by 16-year old Suzi Quatro, these garage rockers would achieve some regional success before morphing into Cradle. Here they are with their first single.
Talk about small discographies, Egg Hunt only released one single for a total of two songs. Egg Hunt was a brief side project for Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, both of Minor Threat. Since this blog focuses on lesser known songs, I will feature the B side of that single.
The Vaselines were a Scottish alt/punk band that were only initially together from about 1986 to 1989. They managed to release one LP and a couple of EPs. While that's not much of a discography, they managed to make an impression on Kurt Cobain. Nirvana would go on to cover three of their songs, including Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam. The Vaselines released that song on their 1988 EP, Dying For It. Here is another track from that same EP.
The band members of Yes must have been particularly nice fellows. After the band dismissed keyboardist Tony Kaye in late 1971, as they didn't feel he was capable of evolving their sound, they had him and his new band, Badger, back to open for Yes during their 72/73 tour. Must have made for an awkward backstage.
As it turns out, Badger's first album was a live document from this very tour, One Live Badger. Here is a track from that album.
Juicy Lucy in another British blues rock band that has been together, off and on, for over 45 years. Their line up, though, has changed almost as much as Savoy Brown's! Here is the band off of their second release, Lie Back and Enjoy It https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY1HCgp43jY
Like thousands of other British kids, guitarist/singer Gary Farr formed an R&B band in the early sixties. Gary's band, the T-Bones, had some local success and managed to release a couple of singles. They wrapped it up in about 1968. Gary went on to create some music on his own. His 1970 album, Strange Fruit, was a great rock/blues rock record. Unfortunately, for Gary, it probably didn't get the attention it deserved, as 1970 was one of the best years for rock music. Here is the second track off of that album.
Australian garage/punk rockers, The Lipstick Killers' only LP release was a live album recorded during the band's extended stay in Los Angeles in 1979. It wouldn't get released for five years, after the band initially called it quits. They have since reformed periodically.
Boris is a Japanese heavy metal/hard rock/avant garde band. They are extremely productive. They have released 23 studio albums in the last 20 years. They've released as many as 3 albums in a year and they've done that three times. So, is the music any good? I won't claim to have listened to all of their albums(or even most), but I like what I've heard.
Miller Anderson was/is a respected rock guitarist from Scotland. He was a member of the Keef Hartley Band, previously featured in this space. He was also in a number of popular (mostly British) bands, but usually after the peak of those bands' success. It is an interesting, and likely unprofitable, distinction. Miller has spent time with the Spencer Davis Group, Chicken Shack, Mountain, Savoy Brown, and T. Rex
Black Randy and the Metrosquad was a short-lived L.A. punk band in the late 70's/early 80's. "Short-lived" is probably the desired result for a punk band. In this case, it was the bandleader's drug use that ultimately burnt out the band in 1982. Black Randy would die a few years later from complications resulting from AIDS. RIP.
Here is a track off of a compilation of early singles and other songs.
Back in the mid-90's, in the post-Grunge world, popular rock music was still pretty diverse. Hard rock, pop rock, something in the middle, there was a fair amount to choose from that would get regular airplay on "alternative" radio stations. It wouldn't be uncommon to hear Rage Against the Machine, followed by the Breeders, followed by the Beastie Boys. It was on one of those stations, probably WFNX in Boston, where I heard Australian teenager Ben Lee's Pop Queen for the first time. I just thought that this was a perfect little minimalist pop rock song. I still do!
I never heard any other tunes by Ben Lee on the radio, so I never really sought out his debut album on CD(I wasn't into CD singles). Then, a few years later, I downloaded a computer program called Napster. One of the first songs that I downloaded was, you guessed it, Ben Lee's Pop Queen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf6XRlBs4js
On-again/off-again guitarist for British prog rockers, Man, Roger "Deke" Leonard was off-again in 1972. So, he got together with members of Badfinger, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Help Yourself to record a solo album called Iceberg. Deke must have enjoyed the process of creating this album as future incarnations of his solo band would be called "Iceberg".
999 is an English punk band that has been around for nearly 40 years with a few breaks and various lineup changes. However, their bread-and-butter period was 1976-82. Their biggest hit was probably "Homicide" in 1978. Here is sort of a low-fi punk track off of their first self-titled album.
Over a year ago, in this space, I featured a tune by Fuzz. This was one of the side projects of the multi-talented Ty Segall. Recently, I've been listening to Ty's 2014 solo double-LP release, Manipulator. What a great piece of psychedelic rock. If you have the time, check out the whole album. Here is It's Over off of that release.
As a white suburban kid growing up in the 80's, my introduction to the music of Motown was through movie soundtracks. Movies like the Big Chill were gateways to a whole other powerful genre of music for which I was unfamiliar. Adventures in Babysitting was an unlikely movie to have a similar effect. However, towards the end of the movie, the babysitter(played by Elizabeth Shue) is racing back to the house with the kids before the parents get home. There is this really cool Motown-sounding song played as they race home. For years, I thought the song was Feets Don't Fail Me Now(not to be confused with Little Feat's song).
Stonehouse was a UK hard rock band that were only together for a very short time. They formed in 1970, received a record contract in 1971 and recorded their one and only album three days later! Not sure why they broke up, but I'm glad they made that one album!
Gentle Giant was a productive group. Despite several line up changes, these British prog rockers managed to put out eleven studio albums during their existence (between 1970 and 1980). I still need to do a deep dive on much of their music. I have, though, listened to their fourth LP, 1972's Red Octopus. Check out A Cry for Everyone off that album.
Aside from a couple of years with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, a year with Canned Heat, and a couple of songs with the Rolling Stones(Hot Stuff and Memory Motel), blues rock guitarist Harvey Mandel has mostly remained a solo artist during his fifty-year career as a musician.
I don't know too much about German prog rockers Satin Whale, but I like what I hear. Their music feels like something out of 1969, despite their first record coming out in 1974. Here is a track off of that first album.
Years before Sammy Hagar and Van Halen were enjoying the best of both worlds and even years before Sammy couldn't drive 55, Sammy Hagar was in another arena rock band featuring a virtuoso guitarist for which the band was named. This time it was Ronnie Montrose's Montrose.
Today's song of the day is from Montrose's first album in 1973. Space Station #5 sounds a bit like Hawkwind meets Van Hagar...
Earth, Wind & Fire was more than just a disco band. Sure, they had a bunch of disco hits in the late 70's, but they started out as a progressive soul funk band. Their first few albums are total album-listening masterworks(Earth, Wind & Fire, Last Days and Time, Head to the Sky) . They really set a mood. You can usually pick those albums up on the cheap at your local independent record store.
Yesterday, one of the band's founders, percussionist and vocalist Maurice White died after a long battle with Parkinson's Disease. RIP. Check out this funky instrumental track off of Last Days and Time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYgtpYfWyis
In the 80's, on the rare occasion that I would hear Siouxsie and the Banshees(usually on MTV), the music would never really grab me. This was probably when their sound was fully developed into the post punk goth sound for which they were known. Only recently, have I begun to listen to a bit more of their music. I am definitely partial to their earlier stuff that was more punk.
As a band that had been around for a few years, it must have been nice for Long Beach blues' rockers, Rival Sons, to get the call that they had been chosen to open up for Black Sabbath on their farewell world tour. Talk about exposure.
Here is a track off of their most recent expanded album, Great Western Valkyrie Tour Edition. Note that this is not the cover of a Squeeze song.
Is there such a thing as punk blues? Maybe not, but this is definitely blues music played fast. Daddy Long Legs is the name of the band and the lead singer/harp player. He/they are from Brooklyn by way of St. Louis. Check them out for yourself. Here is a speedy little number from 2014.
My journey through posting a song of the day for each of the last four hundred or so days has been rewarding for me in a number of ways. Not the least of which is that it allowed me to break apart a self-constructed myth that all of today's music is garbage. While I always knew that there were still a few good bands, the number of those bands is much higher than I had thought. You just won't find them by casually flipping on the radio.
Today's band is a perfect example. Parkay Quarts is a slight offshoot of Parquet Courts featuring music from the latter band's two guitarists. To me, this tune reminds me of both Television and the Velvet Underground. Not too bad for current music.
