Here’s what we have this time: Orville Bateman Neely and his OBN IIIs are back with their new album Worth A Lot Of Money. From Sweden, we have the new music from Bäddat För Trubbel and Animal Daydream. The latter are on the Jigsaw record label, and this label prepared an excellent archival recording by a mysterious band called Restless Hearts. Continuing on a power pop note, we have Bart Mendoza and his True Stories. We also introduce a new songwriting name in this show: Joe Hutchinson who goes by the name of Joe Normal.
Curved Air – Woman On A One Night Stand;
Destination Lonely – Gonna Break;
OBN IIIs – Trash Heap;
OBN IIIs – Live in CLE;
Oblivians – Show Me What You Like;
The Only Ones – My Way Of Giving;
Small Faces – My Way of Giving;
Baddat For Trubbel – Lamna Mig Ifred;
Animal Daydream – Easy Pleasures;
Restless Hearts – Make Up Time;
Lay Z – More And More;
Warm Soda – When Your Eyes Meet Mine;
True Stories – What You Mean To Me;
Joe Normal – Something Starting New;
Lightnin’ Slim – Big Fat Woman (Blues Alphabet);
Rod Stewart – My Way Of Giving;
Chris Farlowe – My Way of Giving;
Slates – Judas Goat.
This show starts of with Jonly Bonly – a new band out of Austin, lead by Jason Smith who used to be a lead guitarist in OBN IIIs. Dreamsalon from Seattle are back in our show. Exactly one year ago we introduced them with their previous album, and now the new one Soft Stab is out. John Schooley teamed up with Walter Daniels who played with many – 68 Comeback and Oblivians are just some of the names. Chook Race from Australia took those REM jangly guitars and reincarnated that lost sound on a new record About Time. Jeremy Morris from Lemon Clocks is back with another band called simply The Jeremy Band. And in the end we pay another homage to Kim Fowley.
The two records that are subject of this review have something in common. They are seamlessly reintroducing hard rock into the garage-rock club scene and it’s an incredibly welcoming and rejuvenating moment in the newer rock’n’roll history. These two bands do it with pride.
Every musical outlet out there has a year-end list. Little Lighthouse is not an exception, although the order should be understood conditionally. It does not rely on objective measurements, it simply compiles feeling towards albums that preoccupied my attention through 2014. Number one is Sweet Apple. Yours truly marginally participated in making of that record, and perhaps there’s a strong bias towards it for me. You would be right about that. But this particular record is a fun collection of songs without much pretension. What more can you ask from an LP? OBN IIIs and Liquor Store are great new bands which made ambitiously sounding records that rock. They even bring out a long forgotten idiom of hard rock, back into the modern rock’n’roll dictionary and it made me realize how much that sound is missed in the music world today. Together with some important reissues, these two albums mark the revival of that lost musical genre. Those two records are so rich with sounds and ideas that live performances of these two bands must be stripped down to a skeleton. Outragous Cherry has an astonishing return, with one of their best records ever. First Base and Strungs go back to the basic three chords and short songs – a formula that oh so often works great. Lydia Lunch calls out the ghost of Jeffrey Lee Pierce like no other artist before. Doug Gillard attempted to make a good easy listening record and ended up with a timeless masterpiece which will be remembered well in his opus. Billy Childs makes a loving tribute to Laura Nyro which borders madness and saccharine. Who’d have thought those two “lands” share a border? Kelley Mickwee and Haden Triplets show interesting ways to keep bluegrass alive and it trips my mind how most folks out there think negatively of this wonderful Haden Triplets record. Bonnie Prince Billy takes some old songs and brings in a new life to them with an incredibly focused interpretation… and so on. All the best in 2015, actually 2014 wasn’t that bad musically as it may appear on the surface.
It’s a heavy show today. We start off with OBN III’s from Austin TX, lead by Orville Bateman Neeley III. Their new album Third Time To Harm, which is loud add diverse love letter to rock’n’roll. Speaking about rocking, one of the strongest bands in Yugoslavia was The Spoons from Pula. Their singer Bruno Subiotto continued his career as a singer in numerous bands, and also as an actor. His new band is called Roger N. Out which we feature in today’s show. San Pedro Slim is also a new name in our show. He comes from San Pedro, sings the blues and plays a mean harmonica. Chuck Prophet’s new single is also featured today. It’s a heavy show today, but we finish with an incredible, soft new arrangement of Laura Nyro’s Been On A Train. This features Rickie Lee Jones on vocals and will be out on the upcoming Billy Child’s record Reimagining Laura Nyro.