THE VARMINTS ASSORTED VARMINTS
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| Review | by Joe Viglione | | Assorted Varmints 1989-1997 is a collection of 13 tracks by the Boston underground "supergroup," compiled by rock critic/Endora's Box Records label owner Nancy Foster in 2002. It's an impressive set of majestic, no-nonsense rock & roll tunes by former Real Kids guitarist Billy Borgioli, who handles most of the vocal and songwriting chores. For those who felt the Real Kids missed the mark, the answers can be found here. Borgioli is not only a better rock & roll singer than John Felice; he has some crunching rhythms that could have propelled the Real Kids to true stardom had Felice let a partnership blossom rather than make himself the focal point of the Kids. Listen to the undercurrent of "Dreamin'" or the punk angst inside "Ain't No Good," the track originally released in 1997 on Boston Rock & Roll Anthology, Vol. 20. "Ain't No Good" takes on corporate shoddiness, buying a product and taking it home only to find out it "ain't no good." Nine of the 13 tracks feature Classic Ruins driving force Frank Rowe adding his precision guitar (and lead vocal on "In This Town"). Borgioli/Rowe make a formidable pair leading a two-guitar attack that the rhythm section of Death in the Shopping Malls drummer Pete Taylor and Tea in China bassist Carl Biancucci complement perfectly. Biancucci's band was one of the first Boston acts Stones producer Jimmy Miller worked with in 1983 via his Johnny Thunders associations, and similar elements can be heard in Ducky Carlisle's production on the nine titles tracked at his Room 9 From Outer Space studio. The three songs from a live radio show (no date or call letters mentioned) feature a different lineup behind Borgioli: Chris Flavin on second guitar, Billy Daly on bass, and Matt Burns on drums. It still works, making it clear this is Billy Borgioli's vehicle and that the painter/guitarist has a vision beyond what the Real Kids tracked on their self-titled debut. For those who liked the heavy guitars of Reggae Reggae from that 1977 landmark outing, this music from a dozen years later expands that concept proving where the original group truly could have gone. Short guitar bursts and creative riffs à la the Kinks with solid drumming by Taylor and Burns across this disc help make Assorted Varmints shine. It is refined rock & roll by guys who do it because they have to. |
THE REAL KIDS
1)ALL KINDSA GIRLS
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| Song Review | by Joe Viglione | | Covered by Swedish power pop band Psychotic Youth on the 1998 compilation ^I Wanna Be a Real Kid: A Tribute to the Real ids and Mercury recording artist Klover on their 1995 disc Feel Lucky Punk, this is one of the key titles from vocalist/songwriter/lead guitarist Jon Felice and his Real Kids. While ex-bandmate Jonathan Richman was content to find one "Girlfren" in the post-Felice Modern Lovers mainstream Boston scenester Johnny Barnes was not so content -he wanted "100 Girls" - a similar sentiment to what comes into play on this underground classic. The three minutes and thirty-seven seconds that start off the 1977 Red Star album produced by Marty Thau are called "great" by Brownsville Station guitarist, the late Cub Coda. It's an onslaught of Billy Borgioli and Jon Felice guitar work, a tempo somewhere between The Modern Lovers laid-back songs of romance and the slamming sound of The Ramones, but with more dexterity than Joey, Dee Dee, Johnny and Marky (Ramone). Felice takes Chuck Berry riffs and speeds them up throwing a few power chords in to keep things interesting. It is creative songwriting with guitars up over the vocals and Howie Ferguson's relentless drumming. Minimal for sure and tailor made for the underground. |
2)BAD TO WORSE
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| Song Review | by Joe Viglione | | The two minute and forty-five second "Bad To Worse" by John Felice and The Real Kids kicks off Norton Records compilation live lp Grown Up Wrong with an additional version finding its way onto track 2 side 2 of the New Rose Records release All Kindsa Jerks Live from a 1983 French tour. Inverted Kinks riffs are the foundation of this hard driving rocker with scattered lead notes flying over the rhythm. American sixties flavors mixed with British Rock flow through the veins of this punk rocker held together by a solitary beat and decorated with a mini chorus of backing vocals and the title. "You thinking you got me beat/but look out girl 'cause I'm back on my feet" John Felice tells the former object of his affection adding a blitz of emphatic guitar just to rub some salt in. On the New Rose disc it is followed by Ray Davies' "She Got Everything" and those Kinks riffs disguised yet more pronounced on the Norton release are found out in all their glory. |
3)BETTER BE GOOD
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| Song Review | by Joe Viglione | | At four minutes and twelve seconds this is the third longest of the dozen tunes on The Real Kids debut, a fascinating fifties/sixties style rocker from the pen of singer/lead guitarist Jon Felice, a tune which goes through twists and turns and is rhythmically one of the more complex pieces of that band's repertoire. Again it is the strength here which is the main weakness, Felice's creativity impeded by his inability to sing the material he composes. This is an extension of former bandmate Jonathan Richman's observant nods to Boston landmarks, the singer referencing the Massachusetts "south shore" as well as cultish groups Teddy & The Pandas & The Rockin' Ramrods, an ode to 1964 when these musicians were barely ten years old. It's a quick set of rhythms which speed up at the end, a quirky mod/neo-doo-wop song that mutates into punk. Outside of their devoted following The Real Kids found resistance, the lead vocals on most of the record having that unfinished demo feel. But the structure of "Better Be Good" proved that there was more than meets the ear going on here, some bottled up energy blending cohesively, something producer Marty Thou deserves some credit for. Mini blasts like "Rave On" precede this, the punk rockers wanting backing vocals like The Shangri Las and doing their best New York Dolls imitation to fill that need right down to the handclaps that fit in with the "sha la la's". Howard Ferguson gets a real work out, his drums having to throb with the tight guitars and bass in the vibrant musical interludes necessarily holding the fort when the band goes The Plasmatics route at the song's conclusion. "Better Be Good" is another piece of the enigmatic Real Kids puzzle, traces of Modern Lovers philosophy mixed with the mid-1970's underground rock scene of the Northeast.
When played against the tape of an earlier version of this group called The Kids from The Rat nightclub, December 10, 1974, the musical evolution comes into clearer focus. | | 4)COMMON AT NOON
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| Song Review | by Joe Viglione | | Originally released in the Spring of 1977 on the French Sponge label backed with "All Kindsa Girls" this mellow 45 was Jon Felice at his most Jonathan Richman. As Richman sang "Fly Into The Mystery", a song covered by Felice on a live show from Boston's Rat nightclub taped December 10, 1974 after the singer/guitarist left The Modern Lovers to form The Kids, the younger Jon emulated his mentor with the double entendre title. To non-Bostonians it might imply "ordinary" girl at noon, but the "common" here is most likely Boston Common - a few miles from Cambridge's Harvard Common, the greens where Mr. Richman often performed live open air concerts. "Summer nights/down by the Harbor dreamin' ", the chords chug harder on the February 2, 1983 live show from the Bataclan of Paris, mixed by Andy Paley and released on the All Kindsa Jerks Live album from New Rose Records that same year. Felice gets the point across better on the earlier studio take included on a compilation album entitled Better Be Good. made available again in November of 1999 on New York's Norton Records label. The original version with the first Real Kids line-up of Billy Borgioli, Howard Ferguson, Alan Paulino and Jon Felice works the best in its mellow power pop format. Jon's vocal limitations had an awkward charm as supervised by a local college d.j. whereas on the live album from France the singer bashes the lyrics around like he's still singing "She Don't Know", the song that precedes this classic on the 1983 disc. "Common At Noon" just cries out for a folky version, something nearer to that original 45, the closest these Real Kids got to the jangle jangle that could have really launched them. "No more looking for you...the common at noon - thinking i'm gonna find you." Very Modern Lovers. Had Jon Felice taken this approach for more of the group's repertoire, combined with the hard edge of "Reggae Reggae" (the final track on the Red Star self-titled lp debut) for the rest of the songs in their sets, this band just might have ruled the world. | |
5)DO THE BOOB
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| Song Review | by Joe Viglione | | Speedy Chuck Berry riffs inverted and expanded is the formula at play on this song from the debut album from songwriter Jon Felice and his Real Kids. Where Boston area legends The Nervous Eaters played the style heavier and dirtier, and as The Ramones had incessant power chords as the undercurrent to their message, Felice keeps it all in treble tone and ultra energetic. Power Punk is what it is and it isn't for everyone. The gay slur was more than just a fancy way to grab attention, at least two of these boys displayed homophobia in the 1970's (though they've all reformed and entered the realm of policital correctness - somewhat -decades later). It's no Mark Knopfler jive as found in "Money For Nothing", Felice spits out the bigoted attack with venom and perhaps the idea of "punk rock" once immunized groups from potential fallout, at least in their own minds. The Sex Pistols' hype, after all, was founded on being obnoxious. Chubby Checker and Dee Dee Sharp with their respective "let's do "The Twist" and "Do The Bird" were able to inject some art into their Top 10 performances. For all The Real Kids debut's high points "Do The Boob" is one of the songs which shows the limitations of the album, and the band. Venturing into this territory means going all out, and Steve Cataldo's Nervous Eaters did just that on "Degenerate", driving to the extreme Felice merely dabbles with in both attitude as well as the intensity of the guitar riffs employed. | | 6)Reggae Reggae
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| Song Review | by Joe Viglione | | Former bandmate of Jon Felice, one Jonathan Richman, had a hit with "Egyptian Reggae" in Europe while The Real Kids, sons somewhat of The Modern Lovers, had an underground sensation with "Reggae, Reggae". The fact that neither tune had any reggae to speak of in their respective grooves doesn't take away from the brilliant artistic license of both compositions - two of the best examples of these songwriters apart from their work together. "Reggae, Reggae" owes more to the grunge of the second Velvet Underground lp, White Light/White Heat, than it does to Jimmy Cliff or the "Ice Cream Man" chronicles of Jonathan Richman on tour. At five minutes and one second it is the longest of the dozen tunes on the Red Star Records debut of the band, concluding the album with a diligent Billy Borgioli lead. Borgioli is the band's rhythm guitarist, but tears away from those duties to add some riveting sounds, an exclamation point to this disc that is so cherished by many in underground circles. Jon Felice blurts out something that sounds like "Your brother thinks I'm a fag", and again employs that right-wing mentality that the band thought was cool in the seventies, but wasn't. At least when Lou Reed made comments they came from a space which accepted life's mutations and variations. The Real Kids played to a narrow cult and were never able to catapult themselves onto the stages where Cheap Trick, The Ramones and other larger acts played to bigger crowds. "Reggae, Reggae" was a step in the right direction and sounds like nothing else on this interesting work by a punk band that took themselves very seriously. It is said that this is the true direction that the group was heading in until the heart of the band, rhythm guitarist Billy Borgioli and drummer Howard Ferguson, left with the revamped lineup recording with producer Andy Paley five years after this. A pity as
the fuzzy sound and condensed energy suited Jon Felice's muted vocals much better. It's a powerful statement, imagine "Sister Ray" from The Velvet Underground finding some kind of form halfway through, the frazzled elements of that assault coming together in a powerfully fused focus. "Reggae Reggae is a dynamite statement to conclude the first Real Kids lp, and is arguably their finest moment. | | 7)ROBERTA
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| Song Review | by Joe Viglione | | It starts off as a diversion on the Red Star debut by The Real Kids, Mono Mann of the band DMZ adding a catatonic piano a la Willie "Loco" Alexander to open up the tune, and Mono (a.k.a. Jeff Connolly ) has big shoes to fill on this, one of the three non- Jon Felice titles that make up the 12 song self-titled lp. "Roberta" is a Huey "Piano" Smith co-write originally released by Frankie Ford of "Sea Cruise" fame on the Ace label and it develops as an interesting cover choice among the other material presented on an album by one of the original ex- Modern Lovers. The underground band blasts out of control but Howie Ferguson, one of the most undervalued drummers in Boston rock & roll, somehow keeps it together putting all the guitar and bass noise in a vacuum. It clocks in at two minutes and thirty-seven seconds, not-so-subtle blasts of fifties New Orleans pop previously embraced by The Animals the decade before Felice, Borgioli, Ferguson and Paulino gave it their treatment. As the aforementioned Willie "Loco" pulverized (in a good way) "Too Much Monkey Business", this gem contains some of Mono Mann's best piano work actually resembling Willie Alexander's mania.
You can feel the reverence inside the energy, the guitars going from simple rock & roll to sliding power chords towards the end, elements that have helped sustain this disc's cult classic status. | | 8)SHE COME ALIVE
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| Song Review | by Joe Viglione | | "She Come Alive" is two minutes and fifty-nine seconds of live Real Kids from the 1993 Norton Records compilation album Grown Up Wrong. It was taped at the Penny Arcadein Rochester, New York on May 4, 1978 with a quick chugging guitar blast that begins this uptempo hard rocker smothered in John Felice's snarling and unintelligible vocals. The beauty of his song composition, truly merging punk and power pop, is overshadowed by the band leader's inability to bring it home with a voice that can make the music mean something special. There's a clever guitar run taken from Simon & Garfunkel's "Hazy Shade Of Winter" or The Monkees' "Valleri" by way of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, though not as precise. It's a creative rhythmic riff right after the chorus leading into the guitar solo/drum explosions which conclude the song in ragged Rolling Stones-ish fashion. "She Come Alive" is yet another example of energetic Chuck Berry chords thumping efficiently at high speed, assembled with thoughtful and creative changes to enhance the Real Kids repertoire. If only a Johnny Rotten or Iggy Pop got ahold of this title to really make it shine. |
9)SHE'S ALRIGHT
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| Song Review | by Joe Viglione | | As with "Do The Boob", the title written for fanzine editor Bob Colby, "She's Alright" is a riff rocker from The Real Kids debut album along the lines of The Beatles' rendition of "Slow Down". And as with everything on that self-titled disc it is precisely played energetic rock & roll, admirable for a punk rock band, the one drawback here the same disability that plagues the entire collection of songs: Jon Felice simply does not have an appealing voice. As a front man he's got the attitude, but rhythm guitarist Billy Borgioli - as evidenced on his The Varmints cd - or bassist Alpo, Alan Paulino, are said to have had more of a grasp of how to get the message across via microphone. Maybe that's why the lead-off track on side two is a production like most of the album, guitars up in the mix on this quick, one minute and forty four second vintage excursion into early rock & roll. There's no John Lennon swagger or vocal chops, though the band chugs along witha solid thumping rhythm. The lead guitar is a burst of wild abandon which comes back to a sexist Jon Felice lyric "she get down on her knees on all fours." No Bob Dylan is Mr. Felice, and one might expect something a bit more clever from the fellow who worked with Jonathan Richman and who authored "Common At Noon", but the charm in these grooves is the feeling generated by the four rock & rollers as a unit, Howie Ferguson's drums an essential platform for the string instruments to blast away. Felice maintains the theme in the very next track, "My Baby's Book" featuring a chorus of "I'm Alright". As Yvonne Elliman sang "Everything's Alright" back in the day it was a minimal message from a minimal time. |
10)TAXI BOYS
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| Song Review | by Joe Viglione | | At 1:47 the song is the third shortest by Jon Felice and his mates on their eponymous debut lp, but it made an extra impact as the name of a reconstituted Real Kids when heart-throb Bobby McNabb replaced Howie Ferguson on the drums - not on this song - but in the band named after it. The eventual addition of McNabb (recruited, surprisingly, from semi-drag act Lou Miami ) gave the band some pretty boy charisma they were lacking though Ferguson is tough to beat when it comes to beating on the drums. The group named after this song featured only half the original Real Kids, Felice and Paulino, thus the latter ensemble was dubbed by one scenester "The Tacky Boys". Falling in-between the grit of "Better Be Good" and mellow mood found on "Just Like Darts", "Taxi Boys" is almost British by way of The New York Dolls "Frankenstein", the original band at its most explosive and fun. No wonder Miriam Linna of Norton Records liked them so much, this record's producer, Marty Thau, had worked with The New York Dolls prior to signing The Real Kids to his Red Star imprint. An album full of episodes like this would have brought The Real Kids out of cult status to the level of a Ramones, the splashes of punk guitar by the team of Borgioli and Felice gliding along with Ferguson's cymbals make it the most appealing song on the entire album. |
THE COWSILLS
HAIR
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| Song Review | by Joe Viglione | |
From the Broadway play Hair, music by Galt MacDermot, book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado, the late '60's extravaganza also launched a huge dual platinum hit for The Fifth Dimensionin "Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine, one that spent a month and a half at #1, no doubt keeping The Cowsills at bay. That The Fifth Dimension influenced The Cowsills is a given, just a/b the family band's "We Can Fly" to Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.'s family's "Up Up And Away" for comparison.
Equalling the #2 position garnered by group's first hit, "The Rain, The Park and Other Things", this final trek up the Top 40 charts has superb stereo separation self-produced by Bill Cowsill and Bob Cowsill. Though not as spectacular as Bob Crewe's presentation of Oliver singing "Good Morning Starshine" three months after this hit, taken from the same stage play, the acoustic opening, heavy vocals and pageantry inherent in the performance make for a genuine statement by this deserving group, three and a half minutes that became MGM single #14026. "Hair" is also the direction the group needed to head off into - covering soon-to-be standards made famous off and on Broadway. That they failed to enjoy the fame found by what they spawned, The Partridge Family tv program, should have been inspiration for this talented bunch to fly to greater heights finding more gems like this cover. "Hair" was that golden opportunity that opened the door to life after bubblegum. It is The Cowsills performing on all instruments, sounds generated by the two founding brothers, and promoted by the group itself, according to the liner notes accompanying ^The Best Of The Cowsills: The Millennium ollection. The booklet explains that where MGM first balked at this single, airplay on a Chicago station and the immediate positive response fueled the label's decision to back this eventual huge hit. The paradox of a clean cut group doing something so hip and counter culture is more extreme than The Carpenters covering Klaatu. The break where the female voice wants "it combed straight..." sounds like it's taken off of "Friend & Lover's" "Reach Out Of The Darkness" from the year before, showing they learned their craft well under the aegis of legends like Artie Kornfeld and Wes Farrell.
| | INDIAN LAKE
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| Song Review | by Joe Viglione | |
Opening with a truncated bass riff lifted straight from the first notes of Tommy James & The Shondells' "I Think We're Alone Now" (keep in mind, the arranger of that hit, Jimmy "Wiz" Wisner arranged The Cowsills' first hit) and with Beach Boys' bass vocals (a Cowsill or two would end up working with The Beach Boys after this!), "Indian Lake", a song about a day at the amusement park, could almost be considered a delayed sequel to "The Rain, The Park and Other Things" the way Lesley Gore told us how it was "Judy's Turn To Cry" after her first hit (and, of course, Steve Duboff, who co-wrote The Cowsills first hit, wrote for Gore). The six degrees of separation intentional non-coincidences go much deeper for songwriter and arranger Tony Romeo and producer Wes Farrell. They were the team who concocted "I Think We're Alone Now" for The Partridge Family, the family group which was modeled after The Cowsills. It must have been tough to take knowing that a hit like "Indian Lake" came from a more pure space, integrity that the manufactured Partridge Family could only feign, and to get slighted after going Top 10 in the summer of 1968 with this two minute and forty-four second delight was total injustice so typical of the industry. Farrell's production is no-nonsense with the bass guitar holding up the bottom, the drums way behind the tambourine, and keyboard a sort of laid-back "Palisades Park". It's got that feel of Wes Farrell's hit on MGM the summer before, "Come On Down To My Boat " by Every Mother's Son, and this MGM single, #13944, kept the momentum going for pop's singing, smiling family. One can hear "Heroes And Villains", traces of "Words Of Love's piano sound, rather than be subtle as Kornfeld and Wisner were on "The Rain, The Park and Other Things", Farrell and Romeo just go for broke taking all the influences they can and giving the group another big hit, inspired by a bit the band was aked to perform on a television fashion special, The Wonderful World Of Pizzazz, according to the liner note booklet accompanying ^The Best of The Cowsills: The Millennium Collection.
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THE RAIN THE PARK & OTHER THINGS
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| Song Review | by Joe Viglione | | It starts with quick and simple rainstorm sound effects, ultra light pop written by Artie Kornfeld and Steve Duboff who composed for Connie Francis The Angels, Jan & Dean, Crispian St. Peters, Lesley Gore and others either individually or as a team. This break-through hit for the family group, The Cowsills, clocks in at just around three minutes, MGM single #13810, a bubbly performance full of stunning harmonies with magical production by Kornfeld, accompanied by Jimmy "Wiz" Wisner's arrangement. Wiz is the man who put his touch on "I Think We're Alone Now" and "Mirage" for Tommy James and The Shondells just a few months before this mini-epic was blocked out of the #1 position by The Monkees' huge "Daydream Believer", adding to the formidable team. These three pop pros writing/producing/arranging had the power and smarts to play in the same league as hitmakers The Monkess and The Shondells, and with a quarter of a million dollars in promotional support from the label as noted in the booklet to ^The Best Of The Cowsills, The Millenium ollection, this 45 brightened up the end of summer/early autumn of 1967, when flower power was in full bloom. Harbinger of The Osmonds, a group that would look very much like this outfit on the very same record label just four years after "The Rain, The Park and Other Things" brought these Mamas & The Papas meet The Beach Boys harmonies to the world, The Cowsills were the real thing, paving the way for The Jackson 5 and other acts who would take the concept even further. This is quintessential bubblegum, the hipness of the record offset by the cheeky image of the name and band look, but it's the music that matters and the cascading vocals were as complex as anything John, Michelle, Cass & Denny had put together. A dominating lead vocal to tell the story coupled with the crisp bass/drums and swirling bells, harp and water sounds swimming in the mix, it made for irresistable and unforgettable AM radio and a wonderful launching pad for a group of musicians who paid their dues and deserved a much bigger slice of the rock and roll pie. |
WE CAN FLY
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| Song Review | by Joe Viglione | | Less than a year after The 5th Dimension went "Up - Up and Away" with Jimmy Webb's song and production, The Cowsills took their harmonies and crafted a short and clever sequel of sorts. A definite sign of the times, The Cowsills put elements of all sorts of sixties groups into their mix as evidenced on most of their work, but "We Can Fly" is more 5th Dimension than anything else. Clocking in at only two minutes and fifteen seconds, MGM single #13886 is an exhilarating array of uplifting horns and bells over a tense rhythm which sounds like it was inspired by the soundtrack to The Wizard Of Oz. The foundation allows the group's impeccable vocals to glide over the arrangement slipping lines like "isn't it groovey in a daydream" right by the listener with adult-bubblegum efficiency . Produced by brothers Bill Cowsill and Bob Cowsill, the song was written by that pair along with Artie Kornfeld and Steve Duboff, the men who penned the brilliant "The Rain, The Park and Other Things", the team effort taking this tune up into the Top 25 in the early months of 1968. Though they could lift material with the best of them, The Cowsills innovated as well and the music here is true adult contemporary pop that holds up many years after making its mark. Nice arrangement work by Artie Schroeck deserves mention. |
THE BEST OF THE COWSILLS
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| Review | by Joe Viglione | | Material on this, The Best of the Cowsills, came before they hit with "Hair" in 1969, that song missing from this otherwise decent compilation. There are 12 tracks taken from their first three MGM albums — The Cowsills, We Can Fly, and Captain Sad and His Ship of Fools — plus the excellent Top 50 single from 1968 with its unmistakable Beach Boys influence, "Poor Baby." "The Rain, the Park and Other Things," of course, is the starting point, and it is a wonderful and enduring pop single, all two minutes and 57 seconds of it. In between there are "In Need of a Friend," "Mister Flynn," "Captain Sad and His Ship of Fools," and the hit from the beginning of 1968, "We Can Fly." "Meet Me at the Wishing Well" is listed on the back cover of the LP, but a Tony Romeo song is actually on the vinyl, "The Path of Love." Romeo has three titles on this best-of, but perhaps the most remarkable thing is that eight of the dozen tracks are either written or co-written by Bob and Bill Cowsill. Where Wes Farrell produced "Indian Lake" and "Poor Baby," and Artie Kornfeld did the exquisite production honors on "The Rain, the Park and Other Things," the brothers Cowsill produced "We Can Fly," "In Need of a Friend," and most of this album, nine of the 12 tracks to be exact. Where the Beach Boys' harmonies devour "Poor Baby," the Mamas & the Papas' vocal style envelopes the Beatlesque "In Need of a Friend." Thirty-three years after its release, Universal issued The Best of the Cowsills: The Millennium Collection. That all-too-short CD has five tracks from this collection and five other titles. What it all shows is that the band was more creative and productive than they were given credit for and it really is too bad they didn't get to be The Partridge Family on television. This early best-of is evidence that they deserved it. |
MICHAEL FREMER I CAN TAKE A JOKE
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| Review | by Joe Viglione | | Comedian Michael Fremer was a staple in Boston on the radio airwaves and in the club scene. Those who were fans of radio stars Charles Laquidara and Little Walter DeVenne no doubt heard these insightful and ridiculous skits when their popular programs aired on a once alternative Boston station, 104.1 FM. The re-enactment of Mayor Kevin White's "My City's In Flames" Speech is hilarious. This writer was at the oston Garden in 1972 when The Rolling Stones were arrested in Rhode Island and when then Mayor White had to appease the fans who were on the verge of rioting. The parody on this disc - along with the tape of that show Stones fans have traded over the years - are evidence of a magic moment in rock and make this classic collection all the more special. Some of these advertisements were specifically for record retailer New England Music City and legendary weekly news source The Real Paper. If you never realized how close Dylan's 1976 hit "Hurricane" is to his 1968 hit (via Hendrix) "All Along The Watchtower," Fremer makes it painfully clear. Lou Reed's Transformer image gets taken over the coals in a take-off on "Walk On The Wild Side," and Neil Old's "Hopeless" is Neil Young's "Helpless" upside down. Michael Fremer was allegedly bounced off of the radio station for making fun of the commercials that were themselves walking parodies. It made no sense, and it was an unpopular move by the station, but this excellent recording preserves some of the majesty. The comedian MC'd some of the major concerts in Boston during this period, 1970-1976 - some of the material was recorded at the 104.1 FM's studios, some live at the nn Square Men's Bar, various recording studios and portions probably taped in Fremer's bedroom! His contemporaries like Paul Lovell a.k.a. Blowfish took their cues from Fremer, who was last found in the 1990's publishing a magazine. |
SOMEONE & THE SOMEBODIES BOPS ON THE HEAD
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| Review | by Joe Viglione | | After the initial blitz of the 1970s new wave in Boston, MA — a movement of singer/songwriters fronting bands, spearheaded by Willie "Loco" Alexander and Jonathan Richman — the college city found techno and industrial sounds infiltrating the scene with the dawn of the '80s. The Modern Method record label, a division of retailer Newbury Comics, began issuing some of this music on sampler albums as well as EPs by November Group and writer Tristram Lozaw's outfit, Someone & the Somebodies. The music on the four-song EP Bops on the Head might seem innocent enough, but Lozaw's cover design is beyond politically incorrect a couple of decades after its release. A man with what looks like a golf club has it raised over his head as if about to strike someone, while a larger male head is seen with a hand around his throat. The 45 RPM 12-inch disc is at its most violent on "Mombo Sombo," a drifting, weaving industrial folk tune with percussive sounds playing against the guitar bursts and dark, incoherent vocal. Where Willie Alexander was employing the dissonance by merging jazz with his primal scream on Solo Loco at this point in time, Someone & the Somebodies take an electronic sledgehammer approach. Mao Tse-Tung, a woman hitting her child with a hammer, and a beach bully punching another guy out are the images on the back cover which accompany the sternutatory sounds of "It's Only Extazy." As Mission of Burma embraced aggravating noise and attitude, Someone & the Somebodies brought the tempo and level down a notch or two, massaging the electronics. Lozaw put together an interesting arrangement of prizefighter Lee Dorsey's 1966 hit, the Allen Toussaint composition "Working in a Coal Mine," which obtained heavy regional airplay. Synth/guitar player Rob Davis contributes "We Were Only Kidding," a staccato guitar-phrased chant over heavy bass. Not for everyone, Bops on the Head is a good document of a day when the new wave morphed into heavier sounds, which eventually led to modern rock. It's what came in between and is worth a listen. |
THE OUTLETS 2000 on Hendrix Records
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| Review | by Joe Viglione | | The lost art of rock & roll is rediscovered with a vengeance by David Alex Barton and his Outlets on this self-titled album. Co-produced by John McDermott with Kevin Army, the band is in good hands after slugging it out in the trenches of Boston during the '80s. John McDermott co-produces Jimi Hendrix's catalog releases along with Janie Hendrix, and the affiliation can only help artists this serious about their craft. This is a rock & roll onslaught — "Sorry" is a refreshing blast of guitar-oriented garage rock. This is the music that can save so-called "modern rock radio," a term that is already an anachronism. What is really needed is a three-minute burst of sound that is "Eddy." Barton doesn't stay on key — he never did — and his vocal style is much like Jon Felice of the Real Kids, but the Outlets drive their songs faster and with more ferocity than the Real Kids, and the jangly guitar tends to extend its claws with a nice buzzsaw edge. "You Don't Need Them" changes the mood with tension and lyrics that take a Joe Jackson riff and re-evaluate it, while "Wired" goes where Smashing Pumpkins' "1979" tried to. As the album progresses, the drums and guitars start melting into a solid unit that makes you want to turn the volume up. There is none of that technical wash that strips away the substance and heart of new records, creating dissonance and unnecessary high end. This is the real thing, solid as a rock, and a guitar starts going haywire two and a half minutes into "Wired" — possibly the most explosive track on a very explosive record. The Outlets had much promise in the past, and one wonders if a record this good can cut through all the politics and just get substantial airplay. Here's a second chance for the world to hear their classic "Sheila." It's still bouncy and driving, and deserves a long ride on the airwaves. The fun that the Buzzcocks brought to their best recordings is inherent in this disc, tempered by the American sound the Nervous Eaters helped forge. Despite their veteran status, the Outlets still rock like teenagers on this 13-song disc, and that's what it is all about. |
WHOLE NEW WORLD THE OUTLETS (ENIGMA)
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| Review | by Joe Viglione | | Whole New World by Boston's Outlets, released on Restless Records/Enigma in 1985, is a raw document of a good pop band with enthusiasm that rises above the group's limitations. Where the rock & roll voice of the Buzzcocks' Pete Shelley would tatter and tear, he managed to stay somewhat on key; lead singer/lead guitarist Dave Barton clearly emulated Shelley, but his vocal limitations inhibited his otherwise interesting material. "Sheila" is OK on Whole New World, but sounds so much better re-recorded 14 years later by producers John McDermott and Kevin Army on Hendrix Records' 1999 release simply titled The Outlets. Whole New World is the Barton brothers — Dave on vocals and lead guitar and Rick on guitar — with Mike County on bass and Walter Gustafson on drums. "Tilted Track" rings with the same undertones of "Whole New World" and "The War Is Over"; they don't deviate much from the formula, and producer Rob Dimit simply captures what the band was all about at this point in time. "A Valentine Song" has enough creativity to stand out from the pack and, while Dave Barton's guitar work on "Tilted Track" and "The Provider" really shows strength, the song similarity and redundance of the vocals kept this band from making more of an impact, both in Boston and on the national stage. There's more polish on the 1999 release, but Whole New World had its moments and is also a nice glimpse of a band making noise while it was also making some waves. |
THUNDERTRAIN TEENAGE SUICIDE
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| Review | by Joe Viglione | | Crunch. That's what happens when you mix two parts Slade with one part Rolling Stones and feature the future frontman for the final incarnation of The Joe Perry Project. Teenage Suicide by Thundertrain is a rare look at rock & roll attitude which slugged it out in the trenches of Boston with the likes of Charlie Farren's Balloon, Ralph Mormon's Daddy Warbux, the Real Kids, mainstream rockers Susan, Willie Loco Alexander's Boom Boom Band, and so many others. Thundertrain were not punks, but they were more accepted in the punk environment than the Beams and the Dead End Kids, probably because Mach Bell's stage antics were proof that they acted like underground rockers, despite the band's music being so slick, tight, and hard edged. The album starts off with "Hot for Teacher," their second 45, and college radio hit. The presence of ex-Velvet Underground pianist Willie "Loco" Alexander gives the disc an authentic rock & roll feel, and it is a great opening track. The bulk of the material is written by lead guitarist Steven Silva, and features creative, sludgey riffs which give Bell's "I just gargled with Draino" voice a board with which to ride the electric surf. Rhythm guitarist Gene Provost contributes three songs to this debut: "Love the Way," the anthem-like "Hell Tonite," which kicks off side two, and "Forever & Ever." He's no mere rhythm guitarist; like Keith Richards, he can make the instrument snarl as Steve Silva goes off on a tangent. Produced by Earthquake Morton and Nighthawk Jackson, engineered by George Lilly, one gets the feeling the Duke & the Drivers guys were behind this project — the Drivers being one of Boston's major blues-rock outfits. Eight of the nine tracks were recorded at Northern Studios, while the final cut, their showstopper "I Gotta Rock," was tracked live at the Rat nightclub in Boston — the song is one of their two tracks on the legendary Live at the Rat album. Teenage Suicide can't show you Mach Bell's enormous stage presence, and that was a big part of their appeal — we can only hope videos from the time have survived. It also doesn't have the polish a major label might have afforded them, but it does capture the energy and creative spark of a major Boston personality who would go on to work with a member of Aerosmith, and his bandmates who were a formidable and powerful bunch on stage. |
MACH BELL
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| Biography | by Joe Viglione | | "Cowboy" Mach Bell was born in Yellow Springs, OH, on January 23, 1953. Inspired by heroes such as Liberace, Leonard Bernstein, Bo Diddley, Keith Relf of the Yardbirds, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Noddy Holder, Dick Dodd, the Standells, Roger Daltrey, Eric Burdon, T. Rex, Howlin' Wolf, Brian Jones, Jeff Beck, Mark Lindsay, Jim Dandy, John Kay, Willie "Loco" Alexander, and James Brown, his stage show reflects the eccentricities of many of those legends. His first instrument was the cello, something Bell studied for four years. The Mechanical Onions was his first band in 1966 at the age of 13. AMG asked the future lead singer for the Joe Perry Project how he joined his first significant group, Thundertrain: "After several years playing the Middlesex County, MA, 'battle of the bands' circuit as a lead guitarist, I made the switch, in 1972, to lead singer. Drummer Bobby Edwards and I started playing the local teen centers as Biggy Ratt. I split that group in early 1974 and hitchhiked to LA. I spent weeks hanging out in Hollywood, on the strip, in front of the Whiskey and at Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco. The glam scene was in full bloom and I was inspired to bring some of the sunset strip vibe back to Boston. When I got home to Holliston, MA, I found Bobby was playing drums with bass player Ric Provost and his brother, guitarist "Cool" Gene Provost. They had just disbanded their successful club band Doc Savage. The four of us teamed up and moved into the basement of Jack's Drum Shop on Boylston St. Sussing out an ad in the Boston Phoenix, we found our lead guitarist, a disciple of Rick Derringer and Johnny Winter by the name of Steven Silva (who came from) down in New Bedford. Thundertrain (1974-1979) was born!"
Indeed, Thundertrain's metallic pop was like Slade meets the Rolling Stones, Bell giving further evidence of bandmember influences which molded their sound: "'Cool Gene' was a Keith Richards/Gram Parsons fan while 'Young Bobby' was into Kiss and Aerosmith. American garage rock was the first love of bassist Ric. On top of this thick mix I laid down my suburban Otis Redding impression, dressed like a chick...literally hanging from the rafters." In 1975, Thundertrain released one of the first singles from Boston's pivotal underground movement, "I'm So Excited" b/w "Cindy Is a Sleeper." That was followed by 1976's "Hot For Teacher," which featured Willie "Loco" Alexander of the Lost, Bagatelle, and the Velvet Underground on keyboards. Some say that Van Halen lifted much of the style and sound for their song of the same name which appeared on the multi-platinum 1984 album, released in that year. The single, backed with "Love the Way," was also released on Chiswick Records in the U.K. Jem Records pressed up a sampler in the U.S.A., which included not only Thundertrain's "Hot For Teacher" but the first appearance of the Sex Pistols on a U.S. recording. Van Halen had plenty of opportunities to hear what this important Boston band led by Mach Bell was up to. In 1977, Jelly Records, part of the organization which was involved with Duke & the Drivers, released a full length LP, Teenage Suicide. That same year the legendary Live At the Rat LP was produced, including live versions by Thundertrainof "I Gotta Rock" and "I'm So Excited." As Willie "Loco" Alexander was getting signed to MCA, a legitimate "bootleg" authorized by Alexander and his Boom Boom Band was released on Varage Records, a play on Boston labels Varulven and Garage. This limited-edition 500 copies, released incognito as the Sperm Bank Babies, included a live version of Chuck Berry's "Around & Around" by Thundertrain. Mach Bell was so infuriated by the actions of the club owner that he did a long rant before the tune opens the disc. The club owner's name is bleeped out repeatedly; it is a hilarious and legendary recording. In 1978, the group released a version of the Standells' "Dirty Water" on radio station WCOZ's The Best of the Boston Beat, a compilation of songs and bands played on DJ Leslie Palmiter's Sunday night program on 94.5 FM.
In 1979, lead guitarist Steven Silva left Thundertrain to pursue an acting career on the West Coast. The band continued to perform and record with Boom Boom Band guitarist Billy Loosigian as Silva's replacement, a group they called the Hits. After scoring heavy airplay with a tape of "Storm Brewing," "Cool" Gene Provost left the band. Ric Provost and Bobby Edwards continued with Mach Bell on guitar as the Mag IV. This band released a single on Pure And Easy, "Mag IV Go Monte Carlo" b/w "Man With No Name."
Pure and Easy Records then sent the group to Longview Studio (where the Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, and other notables practiced and recorded), crafting the second Mag IV disc when Bell got a call. "Thundertrain's original producer, Earthquake Morton of Duke & the Drivers was on the line calling from manager Tim Collins' office. Tim had just signed Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry and he needed a new lead singer. I auditioned in February 1982 and days later I became the vocalist with the Joe Perry Project.
"Coming off of my rough and tumble experiences with Thundertrain, this was finally my opportunity to perform nationally, on a huge scale, rocking arenas and festivals as well as theaters and concert clubs. The Joe Perry Project was first and foremost a touring rock & roll band. Living like pirates, we criss-crossed Canada, South America, and the States. Our mission was to inject some guitar fueled rock & roll energy into the synth/new wave dominated early-'80s scene. Tim Collins and Joe Perry were finally able to ink a deal with MCA, who released the third and final Joe Perry Project album, Once a Rocker, Always a Rocker in September 1983. I contributed the lyrics to seven of the ten songs on the LP, (including) "Once a Rocker," "Four Guns West," "Crossfire," "King of the Kings" "Adrianna," "Walk With Me Sally," and "Never Wanna Stop." Joe Perry and Harry King produced."
In 1989, the Teenage Suicide LP by Thundertrain was reissued on Habla Records in Italy. In 1991, the radio hit "Counter Attack" was finally issued on CD on Varulven's Boston Rock & Roll Anthology, Vol. #15. 1993 saw the release of the MCA Joe Perry Project album Once a Rocker, Always a Rocker on compact disc and, in 1999, Raven Records of Australia released The Best of the Joe Perry Project: The Music Still Does the Talking featuring tracks from all three of the band's incarnations. But what was life for Mach Bell after fronting the band of one of his heroes?
"Joe Perry returned to Aerosmith in mid-1984, leaving me reeling. Joe Perry Project bassman Danny Hargrove and I teamed up with drummer Hirsh Gardner (from the group New England ) as the Wild Bunch. We spent two years opening for national acts and headlining clubs and then I split back out to Hollywood. I spent a few years out there doing some producing and searching for the next big thing. In 1989, I married Julia Channing (manager of the Cars' recording studio, Syncrosound ) in London. We moved to the Massachusetts' South Shore, and I'd gone on to other pursuits when former Buckingham guitarist Dave Zolla suddenly appeared in 1996. Together we put together Last Man Standing , a metallic quartet that grafts progressive chord structures and riffs to my raw-and-rowdy vocalizing. At the close of 2001, we released (the album) Last Man Standing, an 11-song album produced by Zolla. I wrote all the lyrics and Dave wrote the music. Former L-88 member Aartie Knyff handles bass and Jon Gutlon is on drums. My hope is that we can get out touring and keep the albums coming. I dig wild showmanship, over-the-top players, and a soulful rocking feel. It's up to guys like us to keep this kind of energetic music alive."
In 2002, Gulcher Records of Bloomington, IN, re-released Thundertrain's remastered Teenage Suicide LP, originally recorded in 1976. Pure & Easy Records founder John Visnaskas restored the work from the original tapes. Several bonus cuts are featured on the album. Thundertrain was Mach's launch pad, and he calls it "a great rocket ride. 1977 was probably our craziest year; we got tons of airplay, press, and found ourselves gigging with the Runaways, the Dictators, Thin Lizzy, and of course all the great Rat bands: Willie Alexander, DMZ, the Cars, Reddy Teddy, and so many more. Our credo was 'Thundertrain: unchained and shameless,' and from our band house to every stage we tore up we always lived the life of a true outlaw rock band." 16 Magazine called the 18-year old singer "sexy and sensational." Thundertrain got mentioned in Time Magazine's cover story on punk rock, and there has been a renewed interest in Bell's rock & roll career. All of his Thundertrain and Joe Perry Project recordings continue to be re-released internationally. Dozens of bootlegs, concert videos, and Internet fan sites have sprung up. "Black Velvet Pants," the MTV video featuring Mach with the Joe Perry Project has been replayed on VH1 and MTV. Let's hope the unreleased songs from the Once a Rocker, Always a Rocker album get their day in the sun, as well as a live album or two from that legendary unit. Mach Bell is a powerful stage performer with energy and vision, his past and his future are important pages in the history book of rock music.
LAST MAN STANDING http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:fnfpxql0ldae | Review | by Joe Viglione | | If you think Sly Stone took a long time to record an album in his heyday consider this, Bostonians Mach Bell and Dave Zolla began writing the songs that make up the self-titled Last Man Standing 11 song CD in the spring of 1996 and completed the recordings on August 29, 2001. The result is the most polished and exciting disc featuring the former lead singer of Thundertrain and MCA recording artist that was the third and final version of the Joe Perry Project before Aerosmith took Perry back into the fold. This record is an absolute assault, and for fans of hard rock and heavy metal, the boys just rip it apart. Artie Knyff from L-88 is on bass, his band reaching #1 on the reginal charts in the early 80's, opening for Blue Oyster Cult when that band was hot stuff, and garnering interest from Arista, while co-songwriter and producer Dave Zolla was one of the mainstays of Buckingham, a progressive unit that had an immense regional following. These veterans of New England's hard rock scene come back with a vengeance as this album has everything all their previous outfits did not. To put it plainly, had this Zolla/Bell cd come out as the third Joe Perry Project album, Once A Rocker, Always A Rocker, Aerosmith might've not come back when they did. It is that good. In the second to last track, "Miles And Miles," Bell yells out "...meanwhile, I was still thinking..." The Chuck Berry line that Marc Bolan re-immortalized in "Bang A Gong." "Bang A Gong (Get It On)" was cut by the Perry Project, as Aerosmith re-made a killer version of "Helter Skelter." The "when I get to the bottom I go back to the top" line follows T.Rex here, Mach Bell giving an ode to his past and to his favorite band which took his most famous lead guitarist away. This elaborate package was crafted with care and excellence, from the superb cover art and lyric booklet, to the thunderous sound of the band. Mach Bell has never sounded this good, and the guitar playing sounds like it is straight out of the Randy Rhoads school of non-stop crunch. "New Day Blues" opens up with a flurry of Jimi Hendrix riffs starting with "Stone Free" while "Dr. Doctor" gives a nod to Bell's original band Thundertrain's New England hit "Hot For Teacher." Many of T Train's rabid fans felt Van Halen lifted too much from that local hit, but this new edition plays more like West, Bruce & Laing. The nearest thing to a ballad is the Alice Cooper-ish "Still Dreaming (What Could Be)" on an album chock full of Mach Bell's trademark tongue-in-cheek humor and Dave Zolla's real debut as a guitarist to be reckoned with. Few are playing traditional hard rock like this veteran singer and it will be interesting to see if Bell's friends in Aerosmith are influenced by this powerful stuff - you know they found copies in their mailbox. Superb hard rock played to the hilt. |
Mach Bell and Charlie Farren were two lead singers for
THE JOE PERRY PROJECT
JOE PERRY PROJECT
THE MUSIC STILL DOES THE TALKING
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| Review | by Joe Viglione | | Australia's Raven Records has released another important retrospective — a focus on guitarist Joe Perry's three solo albums and the three frontmen who put their voices on those discs. Ralph Mormon performed on Let the Music Do the Talking prior to his stint in Savoy Brown, and that may have been the better band for his bluesy voice. The excellent liner notes by Ian McFarlane give a very clear history of "The Project" and their accuracy is amazing. Given Aerosmith's success, it is odd that Sony hasn't released a similar compilation — or that this one isn't being imported in droves, since Perry is a legend, and his work while estranged from the hard rock phenomenon that is Aerosmith deserves attention, no matter how dark the period was for the guitarist personally. The album is a very good overview while purists and fans would, of course, prefer two CDs and all the tracks. "Listen to the Rock" from I've Got the Rock & Rolls Again is missing, and that was one of their key tunes; also, there were numerous outtakes or demo tapes from the period of Once a Rocker, Always a Rocker — lead singer Mach Bell played one for this writer called "When Worlds Collide" and it is incredible — those aforementioned tracks and other goodies would have really rounded this out. But these are minor quibbles. Hearing each phase of the Joe Perry Project from start to finish is textbook rock & roll and highly enjoyable. Charlie Farren eventually landed his own deal on Warner Bros. with Farrenheit, but imagine if Perry had stayed along for that ride? The music in the middle of this disc — "East Coast, West Coast," "Buzz Buzz," and "I've Got the Rock & Rolls Again" — were indicators of a developing sound, and Farren was the perfect partner for Perry to develop a sound to rival, not revisit, Aerosmith. Thundertrain lead singer Mach Bell, on the other hand, is truly the guy to add chaos to this touring unit. Bell is one of the most charismatic frontmen from the New England music scene, and his Thundertrain band mixed Rolling Stones with Slade, so Perry traded a vocalist/songwriter for a total madman. The video of track 16, "Black Velvet Pants," is a story in itself, and it shows Bell in all his rock & roll glory, while the inclusion of T. Rex's "Bang a Gong" is the one cover, and perfect for Mach with his British rock leanings. The three phases of the Joe Perry Project — blues singer Mormon, songwriter/vocalist Farren, and stage performer Bell — is a vitally important chapter in American rock & roll, which Raven and McFarlane have lovingly packaged and preserved. If any reissue has a chance of finding a new audience, this is it. | FARRENHEIT First album http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:hcfyxqe5ldae | Review | by Joe Viglione | | Charlie Farren was lead singer of the Joe Perry Project six years prior to the release of this Keith Olsen-produced record. It is arena rock, make no doubt about that, but it is great arena rock. Farren is a tremendous singer, frontman, and songwriter. He's appeared on Bad Company's Fame & Fortune disc as well as The Heat by Nona Hendrix, but the industry has failed to give him his due. "Lost in Loveland," "Fool in Love," and "Shine" on this Warner Bros. debut are outstanding titles. This is not your annoying, whiny Steve Perry/Mickey Thomas eunuch rock, all due respect to those gentlemen. But where their voices tend to grate upon repeated listening, Farren is smooth as silk. He's got the grit along with the range, a very nice balance. "Bad Habit" might not be his most legendary tune, but it still rocks better than most. Deric Dyer's saxophone adds an element to "Impossible World," which lifts it beyond the genre Farrenheit knows so well into a jazz/rock territory Steely Dan keeps a tight grip on. Dyer would perform with Tina Turner on her Live in Europe album in 1988, just a year later. This is grade-A stuff. "Goofy Boy" has to-the-point lyrics by Farrem about the underdog in a dating situation. His way with words shouldn't be overshadowed by the musicianship and his vocal prowess. The Australian company, Raven Records, re-released six of Farren's tracks with the Joe Perry Project from I've Got the Rock 'N' Rolls Again on a compilation, The Music STILL Does the Talking in 1999. A good argument for keeping songs like "New Days," "Wildness," and especially "Staying Together" from this album in circulation. | FARRENHEIT RAISE THE ROOF http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:dxfrxqq0ldae | Review | by Joe Viglione | | The title track says it all: "Raise the Roof" is a rock & roll anthem and the follow-up to the Warner Brothers debut Farrenheit by Charlie Farren's trio. The 1987 Warner's release was produced by Keith Olsen, and this is most likely the material the band was preparing but never got to release. In 1999, vocalist/guitarist Farren published three albums at once on his own label: the brilliant Deja Blue, a third Farrenheit disc with pretty much a new band minus the services of David Hull, and this collection. Along with the ten songs here the other discs contain another 22 titles. Thirty-two songs in one year is a bit overwhelming from any artist unless it is a boxed set, but it is better to have than to have not. As good as the intense riff of "Sister of Mercy" is, without massive exposure on radio or TV, it and its fellow album tracks "Shaking the Chains," "Walking Out Loud," "Tougher Than Nails," and others get lost in the overabundance. This material really needed to come out at the end of the '80s to fill the void that was left when the excitement of the Warners deal waned. Here is a great example of how timing can effect substantial music. No doubt the artists involved are thrilled to have this work available on the Internet and on the fixed medium that CDs are, but for a group that should have at least equaled the notoriety of Billy Squier, Farrenheit is relegated to the status of a great metal band with a cult following. Farren's smooth voice is like nothing on radio — his liquid phrasings have more grit than Eddie Money, and don't annoy like Mickey Thomas or Journey's Steve Perry. "Tougher Than Nails" is a great hard love song about strength in a relationship. It is an outstanding, well-produced tune, as is the opening track, "Last of the Long Time Lovers," and the very catchy "Push." "Dirty Old Town" is confident and catchy, and is the only song that has a third collaborator, Bob Enik; the rest of the album is written by bassist David Hull and Farren. Farren gets high marks for the production work here as well. In addition, add the six more titles from Farren and Hull (re-released in 1999 on the Australian label Raven), as well as material from their 1981 release with the Joe Perry Project (which was originally on CBS), and you have a clear picture of the development of a major figure of underground hard rock. Hundreds of years from now retro radio stations might be playing the subtle but powerful "Blind Man's Bluff" or the raving closer "Animal Dance" as undiscovered classics, who knows how this will all play out in the future? For now it is important that fans are able to hear the work that this band takes so seriously. Farren would do well to add liner notes to these otherwise well-packaged discs. For high-octane music that is consistent and well-crafted, Raise the Roof deserves a nod of approval, even if it isn't as memorable as Farren's other efforts. |
GREASETOWN FARRENHEIT III http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:kzfpxqq0ldde
| Review | by Joe Viglione | | The third installment of the Farrenheit trilogy is as consistent as anything the former lead singer for the Joe Perry Project has released. Greasetown and its predecessor, Raise the Roof, are Charlie Farren's musical statements, post the Warner Brothers debut produced by Keith Olsen, Farrenheit. "Signal in the Noise," track eight, epitomizes what Farren is all about; a voice superior to Eddie Money, Mickey Thomas, Steve Perry, and so many other major stars, the industry still hasn't found a way to get this sound to the masses. Where the aforementioned vocalists all push the tolerance threshold, Charlie Farren's singing style seems to have invented its own mixture of arena rock meets pop. "Seaside Love" has the commanding guitar placed close to Farren's Drifters-meet-Marty Balin melody — a very hip beach tune, with enough ethereal backing vocals and lead notes to keep it fresh. "Ride 'M Cowboy" is a hard rock version of what Boston's the Jonzun Crew would do with their funk. Charlie Farren was replaced in the Joe Perry Project by Cowboy Mach Bell of Thundertrain, musicians all working the same circuit for the same amount of years, and this seems like a neat nod to Farren's successor. "Stop Talking in Your Sleep" is classic Charlie Farren. This guy is the Ben E. King of the hard rock set, and that is a high compliment indeed. The music inside Greasetown is dramatic, from the heart, and constructed in such a way that passages other artists would make cliché sound magical and new. Charlie Farren's lighter follow-up, the Deja Blue album, is a departure from the forces at play here; Philip Bynoe on bass, Igor Khoroshev on piano, organ, and keys — they make "Love Street" a song that can only be called adult contemporary metal. Farren's F-Man Music released these albums pretty much simultaneously. That's usually a good way to lose focus on any one particular piece of music. It also indicates a need by the artist to put his art out to the world without marketing concerns. The previous comparison to the Jonzun Crew, though their music is so different, stands. High quality, expertly played, beautifully recorded rock & roll. The music made after the Warner Brothers release is sonically better and free from the restrictions of a major music corporation. "B-Line" is a thumper that some A&R man might pass on, but it's the kind of thing Farren's fans appreciate. The Farrenheit sound is one that stays in the mid-range, hits you in the gut. With some of the bottom of Black Sabbath and the top of Boston — the band — Farren's mantra of "Who's Going to Carry You Home" dances with the right balance of melody and punch. Just a really fine recording that lifts the spirit.
CHARLIE FARREN http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:fbfwxqr5ldje~T1
| Biography | by Joe Viglione | | Charlie Farren was born in Whidden Hospital in Everett, MA, on August 27, 1953, to an Irish family. His father was a native of Belfast and came to the U.S. as a child of nine in 1927 via Ellis Island in New York City. Farren told the All Media Guide: "Everyone in my family would sing in full voice without hesitation. I later was surprised to learn that people were generally shy to sing out. My dad had a Sears Silvertone guitar that I still share with my three sisters...he was the first one to inspire me to play. (We) grew up in Malden, MA, my older sister has a band that played a mix of Gaelic and Jewish music, and they played professionally, which I thought was extremely cool. I was also very moved by the Beatles and remain so moved today. I dabbled with guitar in eighth through 12th grade before becoming a lead singer, giving up the guitar as a performing instrument."
Farren's first band had three different names, the Ancient Mariners, White Knights, and Internationals, they only did one or two gigs, so the names were a reflection of whatever the members thought was cool at the time. By 1970, when Farren was in the 11th grade, his group was called Blue Willow and they performed a mix of originals and cover tunes that, according to the singer "were so obscure that it never helped us get a lot of gigs." His first professional band was Live Lobster, one of the pioneering groups on the Boston scene in 1973 when the Modern Lovers, Duke & the Drivers, the Dead End Kids, Andy Paley's Sidewinders, and other bands were starting to make noise, which would blossom into something huge. A band gaining national status during this Live Lobster phase that would have great impact on Farren's career and was Columbia recording artist Aerosmith. Live Lobster existed from 1973-1975, while the next chapter, a band called Balloon, was Farren's first with all original material. Balloon got airplay with songs like "East Coast, West Coast" and "Listen to the Rock," "the latter song got me noticed and ultimately hired by Joe Perry, who was managed by (local promoter) Don Law," the singer told AMG. As the new singer for the Joe Perry Project, Farren would be the voice on the second album, a 1981 effort produced by Bruce Botnick of the Doors fame, featuring both Balloon regional hits and four compositions co-written by Farren and Perry. After his stint in the Joe Perry Project, Farren formed a new band, the Enemy. They released a single in the Boston area, as well as a track on a Boston radio station compilation and though the band was one of the most popular in the region, with Farren's acoustic music being courted by Atlantic's Ahmet Ertegun himself, it was the hard rock sound of Farrenheit, a trio he formed with Perry Project bassist David Hull, who changed his name to David Heit, creating Farren/Heit, which led to a national release. Keith Olsen produced one album on Warner Bros. that resulted in MTV rotation for the singles, as well as a tour opening for the group Boston playing on 75 sold-out shows from coast to coast. Highlights of the tour included a record nine consecutive sold-out shows at the Worcester Centrum, four consecutive sell outs at both the Brendan Byrne Arena and the L.A. Forum, and a slot at the Cotton Bowl before 85,000 folks at the Texas Jam. The group has also enjoyed years of sold-out regional performances throughout New England.
Farren also performed with his sister, Robin Farren, in the band simply titled Farren, a moniker that got confused with the one-name female vocalist Ferron, thus, Farrenheit fans called the band the Charlie Farren Group. The frontman told AMG that included Muzz on drums, Philip Bynoe on bass (who later went on to play with Steve Vai, and later still with Kevin Eubanks' band), and Igor Khoroshev, who later played keyboards with the original lineup of Yes for several years after replacing Rick Wakeman. "That band is featured on my Greasetown CD. I mention these guys as a comment on the quality of great players that I've always been fortunate enough to attract with my songs."
"The most musically important part of my career has been since (the 1999) album Deja Blue...the Color of Love; music from this CD has been included in network TV shows and has sold in modest but profitable numbers around the world."
Charlie Farren has appeared on Nona Hendryx's 1985 RCA album The Heat, Farrenheit producer Keith Olsen's production of Bad Company's 1986 LP Fame and Fortune, Peter Wolf's 1996 CD Long Line, as well as Joey McIntyre's 1999 release Stay the Same. As guest vocalist with the Black, a band featuring Adrian Medeiros of Tangerine Zoo, Farren sang on the tune "We're Still Standing." Farrenheit composed and produced a song called "The Living Daylights" for the James Bond film of the same name, but lost out to the band a-ha. A comparison of Farren's song, released on The Best of Boston Music Showcase, Vol. 1, and the one by the European group proves it was actually the filmgoers who lost out. Farren's release is legend in James Bond fan circles. Farren works at a technology company, has a wife and three children living north of Boston, and continues to live the rock & roll dream. He releases music important to him on his own F-Man Music imprint. Farren also performs solo and has opened for the Kinks, Roger McGuinn, Huey Lewis, Jethro Tull, Sammy Hagar, Eddie Money, Warren Zevon, and many, many others.
CHARLIE FARREN DEJA BLUE http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:kxfexqy0ldke
| Review | by Joe Viglione | | Charlie Farren writes, arranges, and produces a sound totally different from the onslaught of his previous groups, the Enemy, Balloon, the Joe Perry Project, and Farrenheit. Few hard rockers would take the David Crosby route, and though some of the lyrics come from the heavy metal/hard rock spectrum, there is no denying Farren can find pretty melodies and tunes that, in the past, would be surrounded by volume and high energy. Some of the compositions are downright dazzling in their creation of mood — "Impossible World" or the smoky '30s cabaret "Resurrected" for just two. Farren's voice takes a different turn here as well, subtly replacing the power that had to reach out over Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry's riffs. This is very much an artist's recording, and where producer Keith Olsen didn't really understand Farrenheit, it still would have been nice if Farren had a sounding board to work with on this, someone who could have honed the material so that these diamonds, of which there are many, could get the polish — and promotion — they deserved. "Nobody's Somebody" was recorded at the Hard Rock Cafe in Boston. Co-written by Barry Goudreau, former guitarist of the groups Boston and RTZ, it displays what a great acoustic guitarist Farren is, the live tape a unique diversion among 11 other studio tracks. It's interesting to hear the man who spent a lifetime with the volume on ten getting mellow on a song like "Heart Thunder," material more suited for Jackie DeShannon; conversely, DeShannon begins her You Know Me album, released around the same time as Deja Blue, with a rocking opening title, Steal the Thunder. That these prolific voices would trade styles somewhat is worth noting. Igor Khoroshev co-wrote "You and Me" but, outside of that and Goudreau's contribution, this is Farren totally on his own, without drums and keyboards. As major artists have found the "unplugged" format a way to reinvent their hits, Deja Blue is an album by a performer who deserved to have that type of recognition using the folk format to express himself in a totally different arena. Deja Blue is an essential part of the Charlie Farren story; while the music business has kept him and his contemporaries Willie "Loco" Alexander, Rick Berlin, and Didi Stewart in the trenches as major cult figures who flirted with fame, they all continue to produce what is in their hearts, on their own terms. Berlin's Live at Jacques is very much like Deja Blue, only where that rock & roller sits behind his keyboards, Farren picks up his acoustic. The two should join forces in this format, since they've both adjusted to a world that doesn't need amplification. DJ Lisa Garvey writes in the liner notes that she can see musicians deep in the 21st century covering Farren's music as people cover Cole Porter today. That remains to be seen, but what Deja Blue does provide is "Crazy Moon," which allows this veteran artist the opportunity to speak one on one with his audience. |
CHARLIE FARREN
WORLD GONE WILD http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jnfwxqu0ldte | Review | by Joe Viglione | | On the front cover of Charlie Farren's second solo album away from Farrenheit, the singer/guitarist takes a pair of scissors to locks of his hair above the left eye. The image of being his own barber has lots in common with this project, where he has Bob Enik on lead guitar for one song only. That song, "Get a Life," sounds like the singer is saying "Caroline" for the hook (it's the title "Get a Life"), a cool rock & roll jaunt where the listener has to turn the focus up. In this world that Dave Davies of the Kinks notes is a music industry where you "do it yourself," Farren takes that sentiment to heart and remains an enigma — a stadium rocker with tons of talent who never charted on the Top 40. Farren takes the R&B/folk sound of 1999's Deja Blue, the Color of Love and adds another dimension to it; the rhythmic, '50s-style punch of "Older Girls" is a stark contrast to "You Are the Only One," where the singer performs his tender melody. As the solo McCartney disc was a solitary vision, there is only one flavor here; like a writer steeped in an autobiography, Farren re-emphasizes the sentiment of the previous tune with its instant sequel, "Soul Mate." It is soulful, as is "Afraid to Fly Away," which concludes the ten-song CD. These are among Charlie Farren's best poems ever, and though the lyrics in the booklet do not correspond with the tracking on the disc and the tray card, the songs fall into place perfectly. "Reopened" is the real introspection hinted at on some of the other essays, while the title song, "World Gone Wild," would have been a nice hard rock explosion for the Joe Perry Project. As Aerosmith keeps their money train rolling, the clever ideas which brought them to the attention of the world have been traded in for commercial slickness. Farren has no such restrictions, and three years after his initial 12-song work he transfers the rhythm & blues acoustics of the previous outing to a more polished pop. Deja Blue's "Crazy Moon" finds itself embellished and reinvented for "October Moon" here, while where before he was "Resurrected," now Farren is "Reopened." There are certainly parallels between the two discs; that will happen when the same artist makes another recording writing all the material and playing all the instruments, and maybe fans would have appreciated three or four of the tracks exploding with a full band to give the album more color. The heights Charlie Farren achieves when pushed by other artists — his outstanding vocal performance on Black's "We're Still Standing" is one example — aren't reached when he's speaking with this other voice. "October Moon" and "Drown Me" are low-key adventures, as is "Afraid to Fly Away," all quality work from a master craftsman. Farren's predecessor in the Joe Perry Project, Mach Bell, published a metallic onslaught, Last Man Standing, around the time of World Gone Wild's release, and contemporary Rick Berlin also issued his full-length I Hate Everything but You by the Shelley Winters Project at the exact moment this album was born. All three men were vital components of the '70s Boston music scene and their visions three decades later are worthy statements on tenacity, progression, and pure talent surviving industry pitfalls. |
CHARLIE FARREN FOUR LETTER WORD http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:hcfpxq8aldde | Review | by Joe Viglione | | Hearing the jazz of "Minds Made Up," it is hard to picture Charlie Farren as the hard rocking lead singer of the Joe Perry Project, and his own band, Farrenheit. One of the most prolific members of the Boston music community, Farren continues the work initiated on Deja Blue in 1999 and continued throughout 2002's World Gone Wild. Perhaps appearing on the band Boston's Corporate America disc (also from 2002) was enough hard rock for Farren in this turn of the century as he concentrates on folk/pop and explores lyrical imagery on this release. Just looking at the package one realizes that Four Letter Word is a double entendre, not rap music reaching the lowest common denominator. This is upscale music that makes you think while it entertains. There's a remake of the single, "Sally's Got a Poker Face," which Farren issued in the '80s when his band, the Enemy, was one of the big regional attractions in New England. It's amazing hearing that fiery tune performed solely by its creator, and he sounds like a full band doing the composition "unplugged." The inclusion of friend and journeyman guitarist Jon Butcher on "Copy Love," as well as former drummer Bob Sutton on one of the album's best tracks, "Poor Old Romeo," are nice touches, the musicians contributing without getting in the way. "Poor Old Romeo" is more than just the album's outstanding moment, it's a potential hit if given the right exposure. Farren's voice has amazing staying power, it just keeps getting better with time, and it has always been an amazing instrument. Bob Erik's slide guitar on "Full Circle" embellishes more double entendres: "You know I took a revolution/But I've come back around." Great mind trick, because hearing the word makes one think of John Lennon's idea of revolution, political revolt rather than a turning point, and maybe Farren means both. The ten songs only take up 38 minutes, so it plays like a traditional album, compact and precise. As major record companies continue to make the faux pas of looking here and there for the next big thing, consistently solid music like this finds its way to the marketplace from the sheer determination of its creator. This is what the major labels should be out there looking for, music with staying power generated without the assistance of "corporate America." Charlie Farren continues to impress with his unique vision and accurate presentation. |
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MACEY'S PARADE http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:kcfpxq8aldde | Review | by Joe Viglione | | Boston based singer/songwriter "Jon Hall" changed his name to Jon Macey so there wouldn't be any confusion with Orleans' bandleader John Hall. After he performed production work for Elektra Records in the '80s, and toured with Polygram artist Tom Dickie & the Desires the poet/artist returned to Boston and put together Macey's Parade. Their 1993 release, Too Much Perspective opens up with one of Macey's best numbers, "Song for T," a touching and lovely tribute to "the best friend" he ever had "in those days" — his cat. Substance abuse was a major part of the singer's story — so much so that some of the immediate press for this album ignored the songs and focused on that. The desperation of those times and the image of T's little eyes is as haunting as it is heartwarming. But the record doesn't stop there. Along with LaVern Baker's producer, Barry Marshall, they hit another home run with "Comical," as exquisite a pop number as Brian Wilson and Roger McGuinn could ever hope to conjure up. It's as if Randy California's Dr. Sardonicus character came to life to laugh in the face of life's tough breaks. There is immense power in the music, and Macey delivers one of his best vocal performances. Had the album concentrated on these moments there is no doubt it could have made a bigger splash, and though the "Sweet Jane" riff that permeates "The Clinic" harkens back to the singer's roots, the anti-methadone anthem feels out of place here. It disturbs the flow of songs like "The Last New York Train" and the poppy "Home." The band worked overtime on this album and that is also a drawback — rock & roll can't be too calculated, and some of the earlier demos have more of a vibe than the finished product. Boston scene-maker and booking agent, the late Mickey O'Halloran, commented that some of the best material was utilized on various Boston compilation albums and should have been included on this project. He had a point. "She's Got Me Souled" and "Sail Away" were two tracks recorded during this time that would have enhanced Too Much Perspective: an album whose title rings so true. Mastered by Bob Ludwig in Maine, the group put their best foot forward and, as noted, hit a couple out of the park. A re-release of Too Much Perspective with bonus tracks could bring new attention to material like "Sometimes," music from an artist who averages about one album a decade. There's much depth to the better songs here on a record that was acknowledged by TV, press, and radio upon its release in Boston, and deserves another chance to be heard. |
JON MACEY ACTUALITY IN PROGRESS...I mean...PROCESS
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jcfpxq8aldde | Review | by Joe Viglione | | Actuality in Process is the first solo album from Jon Macey, one of the pioneers of the '70s Boston music scene, on the curve during, between, and right after the Modern Lovers and Orchestra Luna. It is, perhaps, the most advanced disc of his career up to its release in 2002, and though Actuality in Process still isn't the grand slam the journeyman musician is capable of, the 15 tracks certainly are a good representation of his personal songs and artistic expression. In the nine years between the release of Too Much Perspective by Macey's Parade comes an evolution of sorts. Actuality in Process is an interesting extension as well as a combination of many of the musical partnerships experienced by the singer/songwriter/producer. John Jules, the drummer from Macey's '70s outfit, Fox Pass, provides the percussion, while guitarists Michael Roy from the '70s ensemble, and Tom Hostage of the '90s group Macey's Parade, form the nucleus of the players here. Sal Baglio of the Stompers adds his guitar to "Wasted on You," while Tom Dickie from Macey's '80s band, Tom Dickie & the Desires, co-writes and is "present" on "Hidden Behind the Words," a dreamy Velvet Underground "third album" type soft electro-rocker. You get the picture that this is the Byrds-meet-the Velvet Underground, before reading the lengthy essays on www.jonmacey.com pertaining to this disc Those scribblings expose a side of Macey not quite visible inside the tunes — he's an extremely smart writer. The slick ten-page booklet emphasizes the importance of this project to the artist, and "This Is Where You've Been," a collaboration between Baglio and Macey, re-emphasizes it. Arguably the album's best track, it has elements of the Beach Boys if they made records in the new millennium with the same seriousness of "Do It Again." Though there's no "Song for T" or "Comical," from the Too Much Perspective phase (phenomenal pop songs with staying power), there are pleasant moments like "Affair of the Mind," co-written with longtime friend and co-engineer Ron Doty. It is Macey in his most Lou Reed-meets-Dylan style, and being such a devoted disciple of both icons, it is done with exquisite sincerity. "Junk Mail" and "Cool Dreamer" are also strong compositions that deserve a place on the inevitable "best-of" collection from this artist. Concluding with the solo folk ending of "The Road of Destiny," Jon Macey stretches across his career and creates a serious overview. What's missing is the tongue-in-cheek humor of his friend, Willie "Loco" Alexander. Add that element and Macey can give John Mellencamp and Billy Joel a good run for their money. | |
FOX PASS http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:h9fixqrdldhe
| Review | by Joe Viglione | | The mark of craftsmanship on songs like "Hit or Miss," "Saving Grace," and "Dream Inside Your Heart" would be hard to find on many "debut" albums, and 32 years after their 1972 formation in Arlington, MA, Fox Pass bring insightful lyrics and strong melodies to the world on their first full album. Of course having released a classic indie single with "I Believed" in 1976 — a year that saw them opening for Roxy Music in Boston — with the duo of Mike Roy and Jon Macey heading off to Mercury Records to record two albums with Tom Dickie & the Desires in the early '80s, well, this debut is actually more like a diamond hewn from decades in a business rife with uncertainty. Barry Marshall's production crystallizes the performances — taking a "Sometime Saturday Girl" to bring that Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart vibe into the new millennium. Marshall has known the group almost since its inception and truly understands the work of Jon Macey and Mike Roy better than Ed Sprigg and Martin Rushent did for the Tom Dickie albums — all due respect to the highly competent Sprigg and Rushent. The chemistry between the artist and the producers on those Desires albums just wasn't there. And with no label pressures the band is free to come up with fine pop tunes like "The Easy Way," material that effortlessly flows from their repertoire. Roy sounds like Ben Orr of the Cars singing the exquisite "Heavy as a Heartache" with neo-doo wop vocals from Macey and bassist Steve Gilligan. While the group's influences are very well disguised on this set — you'll hear pieces of sounds you just can't place — the key is that the music seems more original because the band is plagiarizing its own riffs from years past. Some of the ambience of the Jon Macey/Barry Marshall tune "Comical" from 1993's Too Much Perspective disc is reinvented on "Dream Inside Your Heart" — a terrific hook over a gliding and airy bed of pop riffs and chord changes. Its complexities are vast compared to "Wanda," the closing song that the band has performed since it was written back in 1973. "Hit or Miss" might come in at close to six minutes, but it has the groove and guitars suspended in space to be radio-friendly, playing perfectly on an album where songs like "In a Dream" come in from out of nowhere, sparkling pop created by a band that was doing it years before R.E.M. formed and brought this style into vogue. |
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| THE STOMPERS LIVE SCRAPBOOK
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| Review | by Joe Viglione | | Sal Baglio has never had the opportunity to show his innovative guitar prowess in the context of his Stompers, a vision he brings to the music of Andy Pratt as well as his own Rock E. Rollins Bowie-inspired work. The excitement of The Stompers as a live band overshadowed the fact that Baglio is a superb instrumentalist on the level of Pratt's other guitar genius Mark Doyle, or Ian Hunter axeman Mick Ronson. In 1994, Boston-area label Botown, founded by the late booking agent Mickey O'Halloran, released The Stompers: Greatest Hits Live, an important document of New England's Stompers in the environment where they shined — on-stage. Live Scrapbook 1979-1983 goes a step further with 15 songs collected from various times and places, "This Is Rock 'N' Roll" from The Paradise nightclub dated February 13, 1979, to a rendition of "You're the One" from New York's Palladium, April 23, 1982. It is in that song that the listener can hear Sal Baglio's ability to get the audience into his performance, the band playing with objectivity while the singer brings the crowd into the mix. The source tapes go from one extreme to the other, "Rock, Jump and Holler" from a July 1, 1983, radio broadcast on Worcester, MA, radio station WAAF at the "Rally in the Alley" is a much different sound than the "Love Is a Stranger" take from Boston's Metro recorded in November 1981. Seven tracks from the WAAF broadcast conclude the album, an important but still not definitive snapshot of this essential 1970s/1980s group that had a powerful grasp of how to entertain a mass audience. Live Scrapbook 1979-1983 is further proof that if The Stompers only had real management they could have conquered the world. |
THE DEVIL GODS with Ted Drozdowski
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| Review | by Joe Viglione | | The creative ideas that Ted Drozdowski pours over his work with activist John Sinclair are evident on Sick Little Monkey, a CD from his own band, Devil Gods. His guitar work is cosmic throughout the recording and is its highlight. As an instrumental band, Devil Gods have a lot to offer, "Lunchbox of the Gods" combining Edgar Froese with Jimi Hendrix-style sound experimentation. The band leader's rock & roll heart is evident, and it is as sincere as his essays on blues musicians in his other life as a rock critic. But it is much easier for a recording artist like Pete Townshend, Jonathan Richman, or Cub Koda to turn to rock writing than it is for a rock critic to turn to singing and performing. Heck, Townshend, Koda, and Richman were songwriters to begin with, the just shifted that communication to another format. One has to give Drozdowski credit, for this works better than the critics band Christopher Milk, it's just that his "writer's voice" doesn't translate well through his vocal chords. Fact is, his substantial music would be better served with a frontman/vocalist who can express the songwriter's ideas. Bostonian Mick Keddy of the Billioneers comes to mind, as does Jim Speranza of the band Close Enough. They have that presence both on stage and in studio which is missing from Sick Little Monkey, that intangible called personality. "Counting on You" could be so much more if it had David Minehan guest starring on lead vocals to fully deliver this material. The lead singer from the Neighborhoods engineered nine of the 14 tracks and sings backups on the opening track, "I Don't Know," and "Pillar of Salt." Listen to the delivery on the John Sinclair recordings that Ted Drozdowski performs on and compare it to the sound here. Drozdowski needs to find an authority in his voice that he's found with his pen. "Counting on You" develops into more of the cosmic rock that began with the song "Now, Immortal"; the guitar sound is like an echoplex working overtime, making some unique moments on this under-developed project. There's a cover of Zager & Evans "In the Year 2525," which is a nice touch. |
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