When the story of Husker Du ended in 1988, Grant Hart briefly started a solo career, only to put together a new band in 1990 called Nova Mob with two of his Minneapolis friends: Tom Merkl on bass and Michael Crego on drums. The group’s first album was something nobody wanted from Grant Hart in 1991. It was a rock opera with a seemingly bizarre libretto. It was a make believe story with real life characters about the engineer of the Nazi V8 bomb and one of the leaders of the US space program, Wernher Von Braun. In the opera, Von Braun finds himself towards the end of the World War Two on a losing side with a desire to escape. In a prayer to Germanic god Woton, Von Braun asks for an ability to travel in time, which Woton grants through a gateway. Von Braun first travels in future, he learns out about all the space achievements which he would end up contributing in the 50s and 60s. In his adventures, Von Braun runs into the Roman lawyer Pliny.
They both end up traveling back to past to the ancient Rome and city of Pompeii, witnessing the eruption of the Vesuvius on 24 August 79 AD which turns the city and a whole civilization to ashes. Yes, you may think to yourself, pretty wild story. But when it came out in 1991, it made a lot of sense to me. I lived in Yugoslavia at the time and my city saw destruction similar to what happened to Pompeii, although disaster wasn’t natural – it was due to the war. So I could easily work Von Braun into the whole story. I loved the record and I still do, very much!
Of course, as it usually happens in this world, complex work of art doesn’t get a deserved notice. Original “Last Days of Pompeii” saw a shaky distribution through a newly established indie label Rough Trade International. My print of the LP contained bumps, although it otherwise had a pretty good sound. “International” was the part that didn’t work in the name of the label. Distribution was poor and interest for the record was also pretty low. But luckily, Grant Hart decided to reissue the record in 2011, twenty years after it first came out.
So, this review is dedicated to the new reissue, which came out on Cond’or Records, distributed in the USA by MVD Audio. Again, the news about the record was very slow and interest of the audience was poor. I only found about the reissue recently by a chance. Although, it seems quite logical for Grant Hart to make this move, since he’s about to release his second rock opera called “The Argument” based on the Milton’s “Paradise Lost”. Perhaps he wanted to prepare the audience for the new complex work, which is being announced these days as a double album.
The reissue of The Last Days of Pompeii is not your average reissue. Ok, it has a few bonuses, which is pretty normal for reissues. But, it is not a remaster, it is in fact an entire re-mix of the original record. Some songs sound radically different than the original tunes. While some songs like “Admiral of The Sea (79 AD)” and “Space Jazz” definitely benefit from the new remixes, two of the songs “Where You Gonna Fall” and “Lavender and Grey” receive makeovers that do not fit entirely. For instance, vocal mix in “Lavender” and guitar distortion on “Where You Gonna Fall”, were better on the original record. Still, the discovering all the new sounds on the record is a great fun if you are familiar with the old mix. To my knowledge, nothing was re-recorded, only original tapes were used in the new mix, although I could be wrong. We should check with Mr. Hart.
The vinyl print of the reissue is very well done. It’s a heavy weight record, with nice and clean grooves, in a nylon inner sleeve (not just paper!), excellent fidelity and it contains a free download. The mastering and printing was done in Cleveland’s Gotta Groove Records, which is clearly being established as one of the best plants for record printing at the moment.
Lastly, the record cover is completely different. It is an abstract collage with a falling tower, roman remains, statues, mountainous landscape and a building that hangs in the air. The original record had a chaotic collage of tiny newspaper clippings, cuts and rips. Both are done by Grant Hart who has several exhibitions of his collage work in galleries over in Minnesota.
First half of the show is filled with the fresh end-of-summer singles for King Louie’s Missing Monuments, Turf War and new the band from San Diego Plateaus lead by the singer songwriter Jon Green. Other new bands today are Mrs. Magician also from Sand Diego, Rat Colums from San Francisco and Future Primitives from South Africa. Left Lane Cruiser joins forces with James Leg in a cover of Sway. The show closes another new name here, soul singer Etta Britt from Nashville who has a nice new duet with legendary Delbert McClinton.
Today we say goodbye to two rock’n’roll artists from two different eras, but equally revered here at the Little Lighthouse. Bill Doss, one of the founders of Olivia Tremor Control and Elephant Six collective passed away on July 30th this year. He was only 43. Also, legendary Motowon bassist Bob Babbitt passed away on July 16th from the damages caused by brain cancer. He was 74. John Hiatt is here with the new record and we also have two more new artists today. Snowgoose is a band from Scotland, fronted by their wonderful singer Anna Sheard. Christian Bland from Black Angels and Lee Blackwell from Night Beats have a new duet out there in Austin called The UFO Club.
Today’s show is dedicated to all meteor observers in the occasion of the annual Perseid meteor shower that happened last weekend. We have a large block of songs about meteors, falling stars… We also have a new single for Bob Mould which represents his return to the his synthless past. Thee Oh Sees also have a new album, which is quite conventional in form. Whispering Pines is a new band also from Cali that we check out today. They are inspired by The Band. Another premier at the Little Lighthouse is the Cincinnati band Buffalo Killers.
Today we start with two Alicias. Actually, one Alicia and one Alicja. Alicia Gbur is a well known photographer from the Detroit area and a former member of Von Bondies. She also has a new band called Fawn. Their debut album Coastlines came out recently. Alicja Trout is also a multi-talented artist, but she’s from Memphis, TN. Her new band River City Tanlines has a new album Coast To Coast. Susanna Hoffs, from The Bangles has a new solo record out and it has a sweet retro sound, produced by Mitchell Froom. Amy Allison joined forces with David Scott of the Pearlfishers for their new album together called Turn Like The World Does. Bob Mould’s Sugar had put out reissues of nearly their entire catalog, including some live recording that are out for the first time.
Today we begin with the ladies. Treasa Levasseur is a new name at the Little Lighthouse from Canada. Her new album Broad is a strong blues/soul offering. Rumer is a British singer with an exotic background. Her new album Boys Don’t Cry is an exquisite selection of intricate covers from the history of fine rock’n’roll songwriting. Parlor Snakes is a French and American new band, lead by Eugénie Alquezar and we have them for the first time today. Then we have some interesting new anthologies, one for Epic Soundtracks and the other one for R. Stevie Moore. Then we dwell deep into South and we check out the new traditional offerings from two Southern super-trios: South Memphis String Band and a nameless trio of the Louisiana musicians Wayne Toups, Steve Riley and Wilson Savoy.
Unfortunately, today we say goodbye to two great rock musicians who died recently. First of all, Tim Mooney who was in American Music Club passed away on June 15th. Then, most recently, Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord also passed away a month later, on July 16th. We remember them both today. Lil’ Band O’ Gold are also back with a new record after 12 years, this time dedicated to the good old Fats Domino. Redd Kross are back rocking their heads off with the new record called Researching The Blues. Luther Dickinson is quite busy recently. First he prepared a collection of live recordings that he and his brother recorded with his father Jim Dickinson shortly before his death. Also, there’s a new band for Luther himself, a supergroup The Wandering that consists of Shannon McNally, Amy LaVere, Valerie June and Sharde Thomas. Kevn Kinney is also busy. After his great solo record earlier this year, he also reformed his old band Drivin n’ Cryin’. Kelly Hogan, who we know from Jody Grind and as a backup singer for  is also back. She has a new record I Like To Keep Myself in Pain. And let us not forget Turf War – a new band from Atlanta, live in CLE!
On July 12, 50 years ago, The Rolling Stones had their firs gig at the Marequee Club in London. It’s not news to say the Stones are one of the most influential rock’n’roll bands ever. So, in honor of their 50th anniversary, we will review some of the most interesting covers of The Rolling Sones songs. I think that the choice is not entirely obvious, so you may have fun staying with us.
I definitely prefer Bob Welch’s era of Fleetwood Mac to the saccharine post-hippie Buckingham era that followed and which brought the some of the best selling (and most covered by indie hipsters albums) in pop/rock. Sadly, we say goodbye to Bob Welch, the architect of Mac sound after Peter Green left the band. He committed suicide on June 7, this year, following an excruciating pain from the spinal surgery he had three months earlier. On the lighter side, we also have some cool new albums that we check out. Chelle Rose from Nashville TN has a new one out called Ghost of Browder Holler, produced by Ray Wylie Hubbard (what a great season for him this year!). Folk rock lady Shawn Colvin, who we remember as a background vocalist on Suzanne Vega’s song Luka, has a new album as well. It’s called All Fall Down. Talking about folk and country, Sonny and the Sunsets made a new album in this vain called Longtime Companion. He even took a picture with a cowboy hat. But don’t expect him to pull Jonathan Richman on you. He’s in it for real. And, brothers Villanueva are back with their band Hacienda and the new record Shakedown, once again a collaboration with Dan Auerbach.