Waterloo Persuasion & Show # 545

The Black Angels - Waterloo Waltz

“Waterloo Waltz” is a heavy psychedelic track recorded by the Austin, Texas band The Black Angels for inclusion on the Riley Hawk: Northwest Blow Out EP. Released for free download by Scion AV, the tracks on the EP will accompany an upcoming video series by skateboarder Riley Hawk. Titled Scion X Riley Hawk: Driven, the video series will feature Hawk and The Shep Dawgs visiting their favourite skate parks in the Pacific Northwest. Download the EP for free here.

R.E.M. - Pretty Persuasion

“Pretty Persuasion” is a song from the 1984 album Reckoning by Athens, Georgia band R.E.M. The song displays slow melodic post punk influenced basslines amongst Peter Buck’s jangly guitar rhythms and darker lyrical content from vocalist Michael Stipe, which seems to dominate this release. This album was recorded over the course of sixteen days in December 1983-January 1984 at Reflection Sound Studio in Charlotte, North Carolina. Mitch Easter and Don Dixon, who produced R.E.M.’s first album Murmur, produced this album in a way to capture the band’s live sound. Binaural recording techniques were also used during the recording process for this purpose. Additionally, a short film was made entitled Left Of Reckoning by Athens filmmaker James Herbert. The short film covers the first five songs on Reckoning in a non-traditional style featuring slow motion footage, close-ups and the use of rephotography that was utilized during the edition process of the film.

Saturday Night Play List:

1. The Raevins - The Edge Of Time
2. The Nocturnals - Detroit
3. The Black Angels - Waterloo Waltz
4. The Go-Betweens - Lee Remick
5. Reverend Horton Heat - Bales Of Cocaine
6. Run Coyote - Stranger (In My Own Home)
7. Peter Doherty - Broken Love Song
8. Muelkik - Savage Company
9. Energy Slime - Bustin’ Up
10. Nocturnal Projectors - Moving Forward
11. Five Pound Snap - I Tell Myself
12. Buzzcocks - Don’t Mess Me Around
13. Guided By Voices - Fly Into Ashes
14. REM - Pretty Persuasion
15. Reigning Sound - Falling Rain
16. The Prehistoric Cave Strokers - Make You Mine
17. The Velvet Underground - There She Goes Again (Live)
18. The Pointed Sticks - My Little Red Book (Live 1980)
19. The Gruesomes - Cry In The Night
20. Johnny & The Canadians - A Million Tears Ago
21. Light Bulb Alley - Roll Over Hang Over
22. The Bell Peppers - Rhinestone Rock
23. The Unusuals - Saving My Best
24. Jets - Original Terminal
25. The Dark - John Wayne
26. Subway Sect - Watching The Devil (BBC Session)
27. The Cramps - Beautiful Gardens
28. The Damned - Melody Lee
29. Richard Hell - You Gotta Lose (Live at CBGB 1978 with Elvis Costello)

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for January 31. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

The Black Angels Clear Lake Forest & Show # 516

In 2010, The Black Angels took us through a Phosphene Dream. “Phosphenes” are flashes of light brought on by movement, this was followed up with a collection of outtakes from this album called Phosgene Nightmare, which was named after the infamous chemical gas Phosgene used in WWII. In 2013, The Black Angels released Indigo Meadow and finally in April 2014 we were brought to Clear Lake Forest. It seems as if this Austin psych band has been taking us through a journey of body and mind, combining a mixture of strange psychedelic garage rock sounds. Indigo Meadow was a strong offering that featured some heavier psychedelic sounds, but on Clear Lake Forest we are taken to a place where the band has increased their sense of vocal melodies. The Black Angels also blend elements of the psychedelic sounds that they have been known for with a bit of grimy blues and 60s pop.

“Sunday Evening” starts off Clear Lake Forest with fuzzy 60s garage styled riffs with a bassline reminiscent of The Beatles “Rain”, as the song builds up to its chorus and the songs tempo speeds up. The song sounds as if you are walking through a hazy fog, before you reach a clearing in the chorus. With lyrics such as “I’m so tired of your fears you have dear/I am tired of those fears we have dear/we’re on fire cause those fears they have dear” the band displays a sense of positivity in the lyrics to the opener of this EP. “Diamond Eyes” is a bit slower, playing into the band’s lethargic side. The guitars feature vibrations mixed in with light organ and lyrics that tells a relationship of two people getting both people’s point of view. With lyrics such as “It’s better than letting things die” and “I’ve seen him cut diamonds with her eyes/I’ve seen her cut diamonds with her eyes/They both cut diamonds with their mind”, Alex Maas and The Black Angels display a certain ugliness within these two characters. A diamond can represent a lot of things spiritually, one of which is it can reveal the inner truths of people. In this song it seems to reveals these characters unknowingness of each other and the beauty they try to project on each other, but one that falls short.

“The Flop” comes in next with its 60s driving garage organ and vibrations, while “An Occurrence At 4507 South Third Street” delivers short organ stabs and drums, pulsing bass and sprawling guitar lines supplied by Christian Bland that fills in the spaces that this song brings forth. “The Executioner” displays yet another character, the one in its title who revels in his job and shows no sympathy. With the lyrics “If it feels good do it again/Twist in the wind/Do it again” and other lyrics in this song, they take on menacing connotations throughout. Musically the song features psychedelic guitar arpeggios with a hint of an underlying blues influence and a breakdown with vocals and guitar lost amongst a mass amount of delay and echo.

The album ends with the lengthy track “Linda’s Gone”. It is difficult to listen to this song without bringing up The Velvet Underground, as with all the band’s records there is an element of The Velvets. This song sounds like “Venus In Furs” and echoes of The Velvet Underground & Nico album mixed in with yet another blues element, but it also has a sort of Middle Eastern vibe. The song is a hazy and lethargic song that builds in its six minute and thirty-six second journey. This song also ends the album with an intense uneasy calmness. On Clear Lake Forest, The Black Angels once again display their strong dynamics as a band not changing their psychedelic sound too much, but by adding in a strong sense of melody and a bit of as mentioned earlier, grimy blues. The characters in the songs on Clear Lake Forest struggle with many different things, but at the end of the EP as we are told “Now Linda’s gone/And she’s moving on” we can see that the listener as well as the content of the album have finished their journey in seven songs at twenty eight minutes. As we reach the final clearing of Clear Lake Forest, we are left wondering where The Black Angels will lead us next.

Clear Lake Forest is being re-issued on July 22nd, 2014 on 12-inch clear vinyl.

Saturday Night Play List:

1. The Missing Links - You’re Drivin' Me Insane
2. Parquet Courts - Always Back In Town
3. The Lime Spiders - Slave Girl
4. Guided By Voices - Bulletin Borders
5. The Fresh And Onlys - Animal Of One
6. Television Personalities - Part Time Punks
7. The Only Ones - Breaking Down
8. Papermaps - Shadow Theatre
9. The Rapture - Pieces of The People That We Love
10. Damaged Bug - Sic Bay Surprise
11. Jaill - Stone Froze Mascot
12. David Bowie - Drive-In Saturday
13. The Clues - Almost Framed
14. The Marble Index - I Believe
15. Pointed Sticks - Telephone Song
16. Neil Young - Crazy
17. Locusts Have No King - Shotgun Wedding
18. Bob Mould - Little Glass Pill
19. Johnny Terrien and the Bad Lieutenants - Back To The Beach
20. 222’s - Always Around
21. Queens Of The Stone Age - In The Fade
22. Teenanger - Zons
23. The Visitors - Sad TV
24. The Police - Contact
25. Chelsea - I’m On Fire
26. The D4 - Exit To The City
27. UIC - Nashville Dreamin'
28. Ten Commandments - Feel It
29. Rumors - Hold Me Now
30. White Fence - Like That
31. The Black Angels - An Occurrence At 4507 South Third Street

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for July 5. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

The Black Angels Go Indigo & Show # 451

Austin, Texas Psych Garage Rock band The Black Angels released their fourth full length album Indigo Meadow on April 2nd, 2013. On this album the band shows us their heavier Psychedelic side, adding more organ and Pop hooks, all mixed up in a sun baked Texas style haze. Many critics have claimed that this album isn’t really different from their previous releases, but this album slowly builds on the Psychedelic sounds of Phosphene Dream adding a new type of heaviness that some may classify as Grunge influenced, while at the same time reverting to catchy Garage Nuggets styled hooks.

“Indigo Meadow” opens the album, with its fuzzy bass, dissonant guitar parts and heavy pounding drum beats, as vocalist Alex Maas executes the lyrics “Always Indigo” in a Syd Barrett fashion, “Evil Things” comes in next which emphasizes the Grunge styled influenced that was mentioned earlier, but with enough of a Psychedelic edge to keep the listener hooked. This is one of the tracks in which critics have claimed is lacking in the lyrical department, however it is a song like songs the band has been writing for years as they strike an apocalyptic chord with their catchy choruses, Doors styled organ and lumbering fuzzy riffs. “Don’t Play With Guns” has been attracting ever since it was released as a pre-cursor preview to Indigo Meadow. The song moves along with its Horror movie organ stabs, swirling Psychedelic guitar supplied by Christian Bland, heavy distortion and a catchy chorus. Contrary to some beliefs this song, while it seems to be written based on the recent tragic mass shootings in Aurora, Colorado, it was written a year before this occurrence. However this song reveals a poignancy that any listener can identify with as it tells the story of Josephine. This was best described by vocalist Alex Maas on http://www.theblackangels.com/info:

“In ‘Don’t Play With Guns’ the antagonist is a female who has the power of persuasion over a man,” he continues. “Substitute the female antagonist with a Nation, substitute the manipulated man with yourself. Heed the warning: Don’t Play With Guns.”

Other highlights on this album include the slow, organ fuelled Psychedelic trip of “Holland”, The Nuggets-era Doors influenced “The Day”, “You’re Mine” is a catchy fuzzy Zombies/60s Garage Nugget-era induced track and one of the Poppiest tracks found on this album, as “I Hear Colors (Chromaesthesia)” drips with acid induced images and backwards sounding effects, building on sounds found on 2008’s Directions To See A Ghost. The album also addresses several political themed messages, not counting “Don’t Play With Guns”, on songs such as “War On Holiday” and “Broken Soldiers”. “War On Holiday” looms musically as lyrics such as “We’re wounding and dying/making no change” and “I found one of us/wounded yet fine/It’s sad how I found/We sleepwalking around” filter into the listeners mind, while “Broken Soldier” attacks with hypnotizing guitar/organ riffs. “Broken Soldier” features lyrics such as “It’s hard to kill when you don’t know whose side you’re on” and “Will you be the same when this is over/You’ll never be the same when this is over”, these lyrics coupled with the lyrics found on “War On Holiday” tap into the social subconsciousness that we are all thinking about regarding war, yet projecting the dark, yet realistic realities that these situations result in.

Indigo Meadow ends with the track “Black Isn’t Black” a song which hints that perhaps despite all this apocalypse-themed imagery that there is a glimmer of hope, ending the album in slow creepy intense, yet somewhat positive note. This is backed up when we hear the lyrics “Before I met you/Blackness everywhere” and “Girl when I see you/I think the world’s OK”. Overall, Indigo Meadow may have similarities to previous releases from the bands past, but it also gleams with its super production supplied by John Congleton (Explosions In The Sky, David Byrne & St. Vincent) emphasizing the growing development and journey that the band is to and has taken. While it may not be that obvious to some, Indigo Meadow blooms and burns slowly with profound insights, incandescent thoughts and Psychedelic goodness.


This Week's Play List:

1. Thee Oh Sees – Toe Cutter Thumb Buster
2. Brazilian Money – Slowly Soaking Up Some Rays On A Sofa
3. The Fabulous St. Knicholas Cage – Bloody Beach Blanket
4. Future of The Left - Stand By Your Manatee
5. Anagram - Favourite Place
6. PIssed Jeans - Cafeteria Food
7. Woodsman Orphan – One Year
8. Velvet Underground - I Found A Reason
9. Deerhunter - Memory Boy
10. Husker Du – Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill
11. Orphan Choir – New Rituals
12. The Action – Downtown Boy
13. The Demics – The Grey And The Black
14. Ramones – She's The One
15. X-Ray Spex - Germ Free Adolescents
16. Gang of Four – Ether (Live The Second Chance, Ann Arbor, MI 1981)
17. Sam Coffey & The Iron Lungs – Do Ya Feel It Too?
18. Doldrums - Sunrise
19. Patti Smith Group - Distant Fingers
20. Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out
21. Black Angels – Indigo Meadow
22. Black Angels - Evil Things
23. Black Angels – The Day

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for April 9. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

The Black Angels, The Mark Inside & Show # 441

Coming from Austin, Texas, The Black Angels have been playing their brand of Psychedelic Garage Rock since 2004. The bands forthcoming album will be entitled Indigo Meadow and will be released in April of 2013. Being the follow up to 2010’s Phosphene Dream, Indigo Meadow was produced by John Congleton who has worked with David Byrne & St. Vincent, Explosions In The Sky, and Clinic and is the bands fourth full length studio album. Guitarist Alex Maas had this to say of their newest single “Don’t Play With Guns”:

Our music has always tried to shed light on issues that may be hard to deal with or confront," says singer/guitarist Alex Maas. "If people think they can ignore the issues, they are wrong. Don't play with guns, don't touch a hot stove, don't give your child a poisonous snake, don't turn the cheek when artists are willing to discuss these issues."

Toronto’s The Mark Inside are currently working on their follow up album to 2011’s Nothing To Admit. Here is what I said about the album in an album review back in 2011:

Nothing To Admit features great Post-Punk themed tracks “There Is Nothing To Admit”, “Lime Green Monkeys” and “Questions”, while at the same time dipping into Garage Rock on tracks such as “House of Cards”. “The Bottom Line” is a track that is worth the price of admission of the album alone, the song which has charted on the Canadian Alternative Rock charts at # 31, is a slower soulful track that is lyrically a different kind of working mans anthem one that addresses issues surrounding big corporations. “Shots From A Broken Bottle” a single released from the album is another track that makes this album not only unique, but great. It is a song that simmers with elements of Blues and builds to a soulful roar. The album ends with the bands usual live set closer “The Sky Is Falling Down”, the song captures the bands live energy, which is never short of explosive and it clocks in at over seven minutes. Nothing To Admit features a variety of influences from Garage Rock, Post-Punk, Blues and Alternative, it is the sound of a great Canadian live band coming into their own.

This week's play list:

1. The Black Angels – Don’t Play With Guns

2. Holy Wave – Cool De La
3. James And Blackburn – Two Trees
4. Sam Coffey and The Iron Lungs – Bright Lights
5. The Growlers – One Million Lovers
6. Minotaurs – New Believers
7. The Rapture – Alienation
8. Public Image Limited – Theme
9. The Mark Inside – Nothing To Admit
10. XTC – New Town Animal
11. Dot Dash – The Past In Another Country
12. Bleachers – Rooks
13. Actual Water – She’s A Priest
14. The Stooges – Slide (Slidin' The Blues)
15. 63 Monroe - At The Boot
16. The Gruesomes – Your Lies
17. The Fan Club – I Won’t Take It
18. The Cigarettes – They’re Back Again, Here They Come
19. The Soft Pack – Oxford Avenue
20. Indian Wars – Florida
21. Young Rival – Valerie

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for January 29. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

2010 Highlights...Show # 332

There were a lot of good new music releases in the year 2010. I will outline ten of my favourites. There are many that were played on my radio program today that I also love and encourage you to check out on your own time, but for now lets take a look at the top ten.

1. Young Rival – Young Rival EP

The last release from Hamilton’s Young Rival was their 2008 Young Rival EP, which featured six songs and was self-released. The bands first self titled full length album has been a highly anticipated release, and it does not disappoint. The album picks up where the EP left off adding more of a Pop element, while still retaining their live sound and Garage styled past. This definitely one album you do not want to skip over. 

Favourite tracks:
Got What You Need
The Ocean
Can’t Just Stay Here

2. True Lovers – True Lovers

Put together by Dion Lunadon (previously of New Zealand Garage Rockers The D4), The True Lovers recorded their full length debut in 2009 in New York on analog equipment. The album is a mix of Soul and Blues inspiration for a Rock album with an undeniable groove. The album is still available via the bands website, but unfortunately The True Lovers are no longer together. Dion is currently playing bass in A Place to Bury Strangers. This is an album may not appear on a lot of top album lists of 2010, it seems to have slipped through the cracks, but it is yet another release that deserves your attention.

Favourite tracks:
Obsession
Guilty Pleasure # 9
Bang Bang

3. Harlem – Hippies

This sixteen track album is a gritty album from Austin, Texas band Harlem is the follow up to their 2008 release Free Drugs. The album mixes elements of Lo-Fi Garage Rock, Pop, and Surf Rock for a unique catchy album. Amongst the songs here to offer, (which there are plenty of) the band mixes in their quirky and sometimes strange humour to keep you captivated (“Gay Human Bones”, “Friendly Ghost”, “Faces”).

Favourite tracks:
Friendly Ghost
Gay Human Bones
Pissed

4. The Black Angels – Phosphene Dream

Starting in 2004, The Black Angels are a Psychedelic Rock band from Austin, Texas. Their name originates from the Velvet Underground song “The Black Angel Death Song”. They have had numerous releases (two full length albums, and two EPs), but in 2010 the band released their full length album Phosphene Dream on Blue Horizon Records (making it their third full length, but first full length on Blue Horizon). "Phosphenes" are flashes of light that are induced by sound or movement, therefore if you put "Phosphene" and "Dream" together you can get a good understanding behind the titles meaning. The album mixes elements of Garage Rock and Psychedelic Rock. It went to number 50 on the US Billboard Top 200 Charts.

Favourite tracks:
Bad Vibrations
Yellow Elevator # 2
Telephone 

 5. The Locusts Have No King – Come One, Come All

This is the third release from Windsor, Ontario’s The Locusts Have No King. The album is a five song mix of Country fried Rock and Roll. Capturing the energy of the bands fantastic live shows, Come One, Come All does not disappoint. Recorded in Windsor by guitarist Leigh Wallace, this is an example of some of the great offerings that Windsor has to offer musically.

Favourite tracks:
Come One, Come All
On My Way
Song 6

6. The Mark Inside – False Flag

This EP is a sample of what Toronto’s Mark Inside will offer up on their upcoming full length album, which is set to be released in 2011. The songs were recorded in the UK, and have a Post Punk flavour to them. Songs such as “There is Nothing to Admit”, and “Lime Green Monkeys” display a new direction that this excellent Canadian band is going in. The EP has a lot more to offer musically drawing on some Alternative influences and Punk influences as well.

Favourite tracks:
House of Cards
There is Nothing to Admit
Shots from A Broken Bottle

7. The Black Keys – Brothers

Recorded at the famous Muscle Shoals, Brothers adds more Soul and bass to The Black Keys mix. The album is a step in a new direction in the bands catalogue and features a slicker production style while still retaining the Garage and Blues elements that has made the early Black Keys records so good.

Favourite tracks:
Everlasting Light
Tighten Up
Howlin' For You

8. Wavves - King of the Beach

King of the Beach is the third full length album from the American Noise Pop band Wavves formed by Nathan Williams. This album as opposed to the bands previous efforts features a full rhythm section (members from the late Jay Reatard's touring band) and had more of a cleaner production style. The bands previous full lengths (Wavves and Wavves) had more of a gritty and distorted production based style. This album was released in August 2010 on Fat Possum Records.

Favourite tracks:
King of the Beach
Post-Acid
Linus Spacehead

 9. The Revolvers - Surfin' Apocalypse

The Revolvers who come from Toronto, Ontario independently released their debut album Surfin' Apocalypse in 2009. The album was re-issued on Optical Sounds this year. The albums title originates from the expression "fiddling while Rome burns" and this thrashy Rock and Roll album features a stripped back approach to Rock and Roll with strong harmonies, while at times mixes in other Rock elements. Influences can be compared to the likes of The Velvet Underground, The Beach Boys, Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and T.Rex.

Favourite tracks:
Break it Loose
Shuffle
Rock y Roll

10. Square Root of Maragret - WYSIWYG

This band originates from Chatham, Ontario and has been around for over ten years and has released numerous full length albums. The band recorded and produced WYSIWYG (an acronym for "what you see is what you get") themselves and mixes elements of Psychedelic 60s Rock, featuring many long jam songs, but also several catchy Pop tracks.

Favourite tracks:
WYSIWYG
Hallucinate Your Holidays
Attack of the Giant Problem vs. The Creature from the Planet of the Incredible Shrinking Solution


Best of 2010 Play List:

1. Awesome Color - Transparent (Massa Hypnos, Ecstatic Peace 2010)
2. Johnny West - Intervals (My Hellhound Crooked Heart, Tosteestostas Music 2010)
3. Meligrove Band - Bones Attack!! (Shimmering Lights, Nevado Records 2010)
4. Vaselines - Ruined (Sex with an X, Sub-Pop 2010)
5. Jaill - Everyones Hip (That's How We Burn, Sub-Pop 2010)
6. Surf City - See How The Sun (Kudos, Morr Music 2010)
7. Vampire Weekend - Run (Contra, XL Recordings 2010)
8. Frankie Rose and the Outs - Candy (Frankie Rose and the Outs, Slumberland 2010)
9. Clinic - Lion Tamer (Bubblegum, Domino 2010)
10. Action Makes - Buddies (Action Makes, Optical Sounds 2010)
11. Neil Young - Walk With Me (Le Noise, Reprise 2010)
12. James OL & The Villains - Trainwreck of Thinking (Alive at the Colch!, Self-Released 2010)
13. What Seas What Shores - Islande (Cordyceps EP, Self-Released 2010)
14. Square Root of Maragret - Hallucinate Your Holidays (WYSIWYG, Self-Released 2010)
15. The Revolvers - Rock y Roll (Surfin' Apocalypse, Optical Sounds 2010)
16. Wavves - King of the Beach (King of the Beach, Fat Possum Records 2010)
17. The Black Keys - Sinister Kid (Brothers, Nonesuch 2010)
18. The Mark Inside - House of Cards (False Flag, MapleMusic 2010)
19. The Locusts Have No King - Song 6 (Come One, Come All, Self-Released 2010)
20. The Black Angels - Hauning at 1300 McKinley (Phosphene Dream, Blue Horizon Ventures 2010)
21. Harlem - Cloud Pleaser (Hippies, Matador 2010)
22. The True Lovers - Bang Bang (True Lovers, Altra Records 2010)
23. The True Lovers - Cougar (True Lovers, Altra Records 2010)
24. Young Rival - Break of Dawn (Young Rival, Sonic Unyon 2010)
25. Young Rival - Got What You Need (Young Rival, Sonic Unyon 2010)

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for December 28th. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.