Soldiers of Fortune – Early Risers
Improvization in rock music is not an easy thing to do well. Making records has become a serious art business over the years. Careful songwriting, big concepts, thoughtful producers, long practicing, multi-tracks and overdubbing are as important as an electric guitar in rock music. In fact, one could say that the record making process has become a high art, developing in parallel together with the development of rock music. What happens when a performer comes in to wipe that all away? The year of 2015 will perhaps be remembered as a year in which several important albums developed in a completely opposite way than what a book of rock would prescribe.
Arrival of the musical troupe called Endless Boogie on the New York rock’n’roll scene about ten years ago was an important event. The concept was simple: taking instruments into hands of capable musicians and creating a deconstructed boogie that is limited only by the closing times in a bar or physical lengths of a CD or LP. The name was taken appropriately from Johnny Lee Hooker’s album from 1971. The group had put out several albums since then and became a staple of New York live scene. Younger musicians from New York pop bands like Oneida, Interpol and Chavez were sitting in the audience. Over the years, they belonged to a collective of bands that made pop records, backed up by the indie rock press, pretty much creating a new mainstream within the college rock scene. It’s gotta be boring as it sounds…
I don’t know for sure, but I bet Brad Truax, Kid Millions, Barry London, Matt Sweeney together with the help of Jesper Eklow of Endless Boogie wanted a more exciting approach to rock’n’roll when they decided to form Soldiers of Fortune, an ad-hoc improvisational anti-band that has been recording their album called Early Risers over the years, following a concept very similar to the one used by Endless Boogie, only with shorter tunes. Their attitude is hopelessly anti. They don’t want to promote, replay or revisit anything on Early Risers. In the end, the listener gets a uniquely formed diamond that should find a place in any respectable record collection.
Kim Fowley – Detroit Invasion
Rock improvisation hasn’t started with Endless Boogie though. Their fellow New Yorkers, Suicide, employed this type of songwriting since their inception in the late sixties. Kim Fowley, wrote some of his songs in a stream of consciousness fashion since day one. Ben Vaughn had separate albums with Alan Vega and Kim Fowley in the nineties bringing their approach to songwriting to new levels of greatness with the Cubist Blues and King of Saturday Night projects.
Kim Fowley met with Detroit musicians in 1997 and made his legendary Michigan Babylon album. The band had a great time and they reunited in 2012 for two more shows. They also congregated to the studio and had another recording session that resulted in an album called Detriot Invasion that came out this year. It is entirely improvised and it’s incredible how the band and Kim managed to capture an incredibly coherent madness out of the whole deal.
The record is not just a great improvisational rock record, it’s also a struggle with death. Kim Fowley had a surgery in 2012 and went to Detroit one day after he was discharged from the hospital. He passed away this year in February and the rest of the band helped to put this record out only two months after the sad event.
Disciplin A Kitchme – Opet
Koja from Belgrade’s band Disciplin A Kitchme (also known as Disciplina KiÄme) has been writing simple rock songs with seemingly endless arsenal of improvised riffs for years. His lyrics are usually one short observation or an impression that often repeats until the song is over. The rest of the tune is his heavy bass riffage, one or two drum sets and horns that are added with a great deal of improvisation and feel for rocking.
This year he is back with a new record called Opet. The new addition to the sound is Igor Äeke from Harp Explosion who not only perfectly fits Koja’s vision, he also successfully emulates famous horn passages of the 80s Disciplina, courtesy of legendary trumpet player Zerkman. So it’s new and old at the same time. Certainly, that sort of sound is more than welcome in the new line up.
Difference between Koja’s results and what we heard this year on Fowley’s and SOF albums is that Koja would come back to his improvised tunes on his live shows. His other project called Fank+LastiÅ¡ has an even freer form. Still boogie, jams and good quality stream of consciousness unexpectedly, but clearly marked great albums of 2015.
Today we continue our traditional review of the best records at the Little Lighthouse in the past year. The top 10 is here. We have double number one position, so two albums share the title of the best records this year. I thought about a lot which one to pick and decided to split the title between Andy Gabbard’s Fluff and Faux Killas Gravy. Gabbard’s Fluff is a well rounded, carefully thought-out record (although you may think the opposite from the title) and Faux Killas are a young new force from Memphis that blasted their debut as if they have rock’n’roll in their fingertips. The rest of the list follows bellow and then, check out the playlist for the top 10 if you have time. Oh, yeah… happy new year to everyone!!!
Today we begin our traditional review of the best records at the Little Lighthouse in the past year. Although “the best” should be understood in a very limited way. These records is basically just a very personal selection of new music that stuck with me this year. It may not be the best, but it somehow resonated in my mind. The time will tell whether these records will last longer than one season, but I definitely tend to go back to the stuff that I liked.
In some way, this show is the part two of the jam show we heard last time. Only two new albums today. Both of them are not so new, but I didn’t get to play them yet in the show. Motörhead has a relatively fresh album called Bad Magic which surprised me with the high quality that it brings. Also, Ghost, Swedish Satanists, had a cool album this year called Meloria. Again something, not something that I would normally go for, but really cool album nevertheless. Tune in next year for the new episode with the year-end retrospective of best albums.
It’s a jammy show today. We have entirely improvized band called Soldiers of Fortune, consisting of many established musicians from New York (Oneida, Chavez, Interpol). Jesper Eklow from Endless Boogie seems to play a very important role forming the sound on the new Soldiers of Fortune record Early Risers. Next, we have the legendary (ex) Yugoslav band Disciplin A Kitchme, who are back with yet another great sounding record entitled Opet.. Ethan Johns is also back with the new album and we introduce a new name: Greek band 7-Odds. Dom Mariani’s DM3 has a nice new compilation record.
We bring you some cool new stuff. Daughter of Howe Gelb and Paula Jean Brown (of the original Giant Sand line up), has a great band called Patsy’s Rats. Impulsive Hearts from Chicago are also fronted by a lady: Danielle Sines. Miriam Linna of Norton Records has made another new album this year Down Today. We also introduce Green Hornet from Netherlands and Sloming Moops from Zagreb, Croatia. Also from there, Thee Melomen have a new single. Peter Buck of REM is back with a nice solo record. An interesting tribute came out recently in Tucson AZ for Rainer Ptacek.
Vinyl Junkyard instalment #15 is here! In special episodes like this one I play almost entire LPs that I found dirt cheap somewhere laying in some bargain bin at a record store. Today’s pick are two volumes of Jin Records compilations of Swamp Pop hits Golden Dozen that came out some time in the 70s. Jin Records was a home to some great Swamp Pop hits, Opelousas Sostan by Rufus Jangneaux most notably. Swamp Pop was a special brand of Louisiana rock music that was probably the main genre in that state locally and it rarely got out. The music was a blend of rock’n’roll and cajun melancholy. We will go through twenty two of the 24 tunes on these two albums and we will provide some dry info on most of the bands that found their place on these records.
It’s time for another Vinyl Junkyard special of The Little Lighthouse. In such special episodes I play almost entire LPs that I found dirt cheap somewhere laying in some bargain bin at a record store. Today’s pick is a live compilation album London R And B Sessions at Hope And Anchor. Hope and Anchor was an important live venue in London that promoted pub rock and punk bands in the late 70s. There was a well known live compilation that promoted punk rock in 1977, but there is also a lesser known album from 1980 that promoted rhythm and blues sound and featured excellent pub rock bands from that era. This lesser known album is the topic of today’s special. Kick back and enjoy cuts from this album, mixed in with some studio recordings and some info that I found about this interesting rock scene.
Today we introduce Nikki Hill – singer from North Carolina with a special brand of passionate soulful voice and hard rocking music. Also, from Lille, France, we have a new band with Polish last names The Arrogants. Another new band is All Them Witches from Nashville with fresh sound and long songs. Our friend Kim Simpson helped Jesse Sublett (ex Skunks) on his new record. Kelley Stoltz from San Francisco has a new record too, as well as King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard. Legendary power pop band from Ohio, Blue Ash recently got a nice retrospective album with previously unreleased demo songs. All of this and more in our new show today!
Today we introduce Dead Ghosts from Vancouver and Hierophants from Australia. Also from Australia, their rock’n’roll stars You Am I are back with the new record called Porridge and Hotsauce. Fred and Toody Cole from Dead Moon visited Cleveland, and we check it out. Calibro 35 from Italy, are here today with the new record as well. Ned O’Millick of Tito’s Boys from Pula, Croatia has a new solo project featuring Mike Watt on bass. Sadly, we send farewell to one the most amazing figures in New Orleans music, Allen Toussaint. He passed away on November 9th suffering from a heart-attack after his gig in Madrid.