Springlevend. The Kik

You can listen to 'Simone' here.

The Madd is dead, long live The Kik. Singer/guitarist Dave von Raven quit his garagerock band and started The Kik in 2011. Were the first two singles in English, this album is Dutch and if The Kik refutes something, then it is the legend that great popsongs must be sung in English. The spangly, jingle jangle guitar sounds and Dutch blend perfectly. Springlevend ("Alive and kicking") is a high mass of beat and pop. The sixties are all over this great, fun, ultimately retro album that was released at the end of May of this year on the Excelsior label, that proves, yet again, to have a fine ear for great guitar fuelled pop songs.

The Kik finds its inspiration in just two years of pop music: 1963 and 1964, the days that (Mersey) beat was all over the charts. Beatlesque chord progressions, The Hollies (from Manchester, but fill in any Liverpool pop group) like singing, Dave Davies' guitar lead in 'Luchtballon' and the organ of The Sonics (non-UK), Dave Clark Five pure pop, a The Who like intro. The band fuses these influences to blend into their own portion of excitement. Because sheer excitement it is.'Verliefd op een plaatje' is a early The Hollies like single with a George Harrison like guitar solo. While all the time the choruses are just to fall in love with. This song is so much fun. The Kik holds that quality in it to blend voices in a superb way.

The differences with The Madd are not so huge as might be expected. I think the switch to the more UK than US pop sound is the main difference, apart from the language of course. The Kik is more beat or pop oriented, but the effect of both bands' songs are identical, a retro feeling for things long past. Most lyrics are about girls, as they should be. Falling in love, out of love, longing for a beautiful girl.

The Kik even goes for authenticity in the form of doing a duet with the Dutch über-hippy Armand, famous for his one big hit in 1967 'Ben ik te min' in 'Want er is niemand'. His voice blends perfectly with this song. It's good to hear his voice in a new song, with relevance to the here and now, instead of being depicted as the, very weird, relic from an age long gone. Which is his self-chosen image.

It all ends with a familiar riff, 'Last train to Clarksville'? No, 'Zevenhuizer zondag' is a perfect cover of 'Pleasant valley Sunday'. Probably my favourite The Monkees song with a great guitar riff, something which is usually not referenced when people speak about The Monkees. The Dutch lyric is about band practice while the rest of the village is in church on Sunday. A little rebellion never hurt anyone and if Springlevend is the result of this little rebellion, I'd recommend to anyone. If you like good pop songs from the sixties this is your album for and from 2012.

Wo.

You can order Springlevend here


or here

This machine. The Dandy Warhols

You can listen to 'Sad vacation' here.

The ultimately trippy 'Not if you were the last junkie on earth' was my introduction to The Dandy Warhols. Their 'Bohemian like you' was inescapable for a while thanks to the add. It got everyone oohh-oohing. My former band even covered it for a while. But after that? Most albums sounded a bit more like the same and The Dandy Warhols weren't exactly the most exciting band in the world to start with, were they? Still every time a new album was released I took a listen. I'd been surprised before.

This machine is one of the albums that instantly turned to my better side. If you asked me why, I couldn't really answer you. Corey Taylor-Taylor is singing as listlessly as he usually does, the songs are mostly mid-tempo. So that's not it. Pressed harder I would probably tell you that '16 Tons' is a funny, sort of kinda jazzy song, with a honking sax and Taylor-Taylor singing in a lower voice. That 'I am free' is a lightweight, freeflowing song, with again copper sounds all over the end of the song. There's nothing highbrow going on and nothing so far out there that it was a lot of fun making the music, without any thought to the persons needing to listening to the result. Some of The Dandy Warhols' jams of old deserved that description.

This machine holds songs with a lot of sixties garage rock full with psychedelica infusions that take all the rough edges off, but songs they are. 'SETI vs. the Wow! signal' has this great, direct and slightly distorted guitar riff going on that gets me on the edge of my chair immediately. George Harrison could have been proud also in the way a 'Within you without you' like melody is made softer, made more beautiful with a 'Once upon a time in the west' like harmonica sound. Trippy, o yes, very. 'Don't shoot she cried' must have been the result of something with mushrooms. Too long, but at least the start is very intriguing.

The effect This machine has on me, is that it makes me curious about what's to follow on the album and that is another main difference with several albums before it. This is without being brilliant, because not one song on the album is. The Dandy Warhols is not one of the top bands in my league, but a band that that hovers on the periphery, sometimes in, mostly out. Another effect of This machine is that most songs put a smile on my face, a pleasant one and that is always nice to notice. So all in all I wanted to do the album justice and share this feeling and impression with you.

I can't promise that I will still play This machine a year from now, but for now I'm having fun. Let that suffice.

Wo.

You can order This machine here


or here

Rock of ages. The movie

Tom Cruise as the decadent 80-ties hair band, drug and booze fuelled rock singer Stacy Jaxx? Sure ....... and I had great fun. Reminiscing over all these hard rock songs that, for the most part, I never truly liked, but hit that familiar snare somewhere deep down. (The most horrible songs can do that, as you'll have experienced too and I mean real horrible songs.) The story line is 100% familiar, the setting somewhat different, the hair not even that unlike 'Grease', come to think of it. From the moment 'Paradise city' kicked into the score, the makers of this movie had me. For some reason or other I always forget how incredibly good and sheer exciting this Guns 'N' Roses song is.

Rock of ages apparently is a musical that was filmed. I know nothing of musicals, hardly ever seen one and I did not even know I was going to a filmed musical. Set in Los Angeles in 1987, when hair bands and spandex are the thing. The Bourbon room is the venue where it all happens, but is under threat from the IRS, mismanagement and the Mothers for God fighting the filth of rock music and the influence of rock on their kids with banners on the streets. All is done with great irony, Michael Jackson like dancing by 40+ ladies kicking out their legs, pure sex, singing about banning the rock monster on Sunset strip forever. Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand singing their love for each other ending in a long kiss. And Tom Cruise having the time of his life and singing. Mary J. Blige as owner of the 'Venus Club', Paul Giamatti as the slick manager Paul Gill. There are many familiar faces in Rock of ages, topping it off with Catherine Zeta-Jones as the vengeance fuelled, spurned "Mother of Prevention". But who would have thought that redemption lies just on the other side of a portion of some good old fashioned hard rock as a lascivious hardrocker finds undercooled vulcano reporter about to erupt? One thing is seriously askew though: Tom Cruise can show his Mission Impossible IV rock hard trained body off all the time, but where did the lewd Stacy Jaxx get it from? Hoisting JD bottles up by the crate? Carrying white powder sacks by the 60 kilos worth?

In the meantime boy meets girl, loses girl, finds girl again and sing together forever and happily ever in the background of a hard rock celebration. One of the highlights is the way 'We built this city' ("on rock and roll") is fused with "We're not gonna take". Utterly brilliant! This trick is performed several times when original musical score songs are fused effortlessly with e.g. 'More than words' or 'I love rock and roll'. While Cruise's staple song of this movie, Def Leppard's 'Pour a little sugar on me' is just great to watch. 1970 Roger Daltrey is very near in this one.

When 'Paradise city' kicked in during the title role, I realised that I had a totally great time with this movie. Where the first bus scene made me burst out laughing loud and not from enjoyment. With no more than circa 15 other people of which three left at the first song. I was already looking at these 60-ish ladies, "are you sure you want to see this"? "Sorry, wrong movie", they said apologetically. I will never be a fan of 80-ties rock, but here I couldn't have asked for more this Friday night in Leiden.

Wo.

A snippet of 'Pour some sugar on me' and the trailer can be found here.

Early takes, volume 1. George Harrison

You can listen to 'All things must pass' here.

Oh, no. Not another outtake album, was my thought when I read a review of this George Harrison offer. Usually they cost a lot and after listening to it once, perhaps twice, the album (or even boxset) simply disappears into the cupboard with all the other trophies. Of course, curiosity got the better of me anyway and here I sit listening to Early takes and already writing. And then to think it's starts with a bare version of 'My sweet lord', his staple no.1 solo hit song. My head started playing all the overdubs outside of acoustic guitar, drums and bass. Disappointment kicked in after the first notes. Highly sceptical I got to song #2 on Early takes, volume 1. That's when the magic kicked in. The sheer beauty of 'Run of the mill' and all that followed, the pleasant familiarness of Harrison's voice and the quality of his songs captured me, held me enraptured for just over 30 minutes. The basic setting of the studio try outs suits George Harrison like a glove.

The last years in The Beatles George Harrison started to write his best songs till then. In fact, coming up with songs like 'While my guitar gently weeps', 'Old brown shoe', 'Here comes the sun' and of course 'Something' (played to this day by Paul) he made his songs stand out in comparison. They were nothing but the tip of the iceberg. All these songs started flowing out of him leading to his first solo album(s) 'All things must pass' and hits like 'My sweet lord' and the even better 'What is life'. It remains a question that will never be answered what would have happened to them if The Beatles had decided to record a new album in 1970 any way. Maybe a few would have found their way to The Beatles albums. 'All things must pass' as album title?

It's from this period that these recordings stem from mostly. They are playful, fairly bare, the essence of the songs, showing the quality of Harrison's song writing, a variety of songs that he's clearly comfortable with. Doing covers of Bob Dylan's 'Mama you've been on my mind' and the Everly Brothers' 'Let it be me'. And let's not forget he's "only" practising his songs with the other musicians in the studio or recording demo's on his own. "That is all and then it's finished", you can hear George say somewhat sheepishly at the end of 'Woman don't you cry for me'.

The acoustic guitar sound is so Beatles and so is his voice of course. The songs as such may not be as some go way beyond what The Beatles ever done. The very country like 'Behind that locked door" has a pedal steel guitar crying away in a way that is totally Beatles alien. Perhaps a Bob Dylan influence as George and Bob had been writing and recording together around this time?

George's voice holds up great in the studio. In the end he may not have had a voice to be a lead singer carrying a whole show. Here though it's magnificent. So clear as if he's singing right in front of me in the living room. He shows us his different voices, soft voiced in 'Let it be me', a countryish drawl in 'Woman don't you cry for me'. Here a compliment must be given to the producers of this album. The sound is just, I say it again, magnificent and at times simply fragile. George Harrison stripped to the essence George Harrison. Exit Phil Spector, enter George. All things must pass, indeed. Said song is just so beautiful on this album. If anything, Early takes, volume one is a true gem.

Perhaps it helps that, believe or not, I never got around buying 'All things must past', so most songs on this album sound new to me. To me they're new. It makes me truly appreciate this album for what it is and I can't see it as a reissue, outtake album. Thanks for this unexpected present, Harrison family.

Wo.


You can order Early takes, volume one here


and here

Temple beautiful. Chuck Prophet (2)

You can listen to Temple beautiful here.

Chuck Prophet is on my radar since somewhere in the mid-nineties. If I remember correctly his album 'No other love' was my introduction to his music, an album with several beautiful songs on it, but on the whole disappeared somewhere in the cobwebs of my ever expending discography. My impression of near the 20 years of following his career, is that through these years his songs seem to come more easily to him. Just a little smoother, slightly poppier than before, perhaps a slightly brighter coloured, making me remember his songs just a little easier and making me come back to them more easily.

His previous effort 'Let freedom ring' rotated in the cd tray and iPod for quite some time. (I even have a painting of the cover in my living room.) And the same goes for his new album Temple beautiful. The album is Chuckful with pop-rock songs of the highest quality. Made with love and a keen eye for detail. Every note appears in the place where it belongs, all oohs and aahhs pure ear candy and some delightful guitar solos showing, almost as an afterthought, what a great guitar player Prophet is.

In the past ten years I was lucky enough to see Prophet and band play very up close in the Q-Bus in Leiden three times. A reschedule of his tour prevented this in May last, but who knows what the future holds. Prophet is a great performer, with the songs to boot, able to create an intimate atmosphere within a wall of rock. No mean feat.

Temple beautiful gives him several live favorites for the future. Despite the fact that I do not understand that Chuck Prophet is not a stable factor in the B-class of rockstars, playing larger venues at a regular basis, at least it gives him the freedom to play what he likes and refresh his setlist with new songs. People may actually be interested in them. It's not the quality of the songs offered. On Temple beautiful Chuck Prophet is at the top of his game. Opener 'Play that song again' holds everything this album promises. Staccato guitar playing, a great, small break introducing the directly memorable, melody laden chorus, including oohs, and a slightly strange bridge section. 'Castro halloween' does the same but adds some great guitar soloing. The fun only gets bigger when the happy memories of the 'Temple beautiful' gets laden on us, with some honking horns in the background (and excitement, even for a Californian, is equal to Manchester United).

There are some dips on temple beautiful also. Towards the end there's the song 'Little girl, little boy'. Which reminds me somewhat of Nick Lowe's 198something hit 'Half a boy, half a man', but then without the fire. 'White night big city' also misses some urgency, although it has its moments. By that time Temple beautiful has already offered its share of great songs. So I'm not complaining. Next to that, Chuck Prophet's lesser songs would still shine out on albums from many a lesser artist. Prophet tops it all of with the mysteriously titled 'Emperor Norton in the last year of his life (1880)', a true ballad, with clear, Americana like guitar playing. Temple beautiful is one of the gems released in 2012 so far. If you haven't heard it yet, it may be about time that you did.

Wo.

You can order Temple beautiful here

or here