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Shuffle of the week #52

1. Django Django – Firewater (Django Django, 2012) [singlepic id=395 w=80 h=50 float=left]

One of the finest things that came from London the past few years, being a great debut album full of neo-psychedelia and irresistible rhythms.  This is one of those catchy tunes, think of a natty kind of early Animal Collective with a thrilling outro full of vocal harmonies. And as the quest for continuity remains the greatest fetish down here: drummer and producer David Maclean is the brother of John Maclean, sampler of The Beta Band.

2. Roxy Music – In Every Dream Home a Heartache (For Your Pleasure, 1973) [singlepic id=398 w=80 h=50 float=left]

More arty stuff from London, with Roxy Music’s second album (feat. Bryan Ferry’s then girlfriend Amanda Lear on the front cover) , released after the self-epynomous debut and the successful single ‘Virginia Plain’.  At that point, Phil Manzanera was meanwhile promoted from roadie to the band’s most skilful musician, the spot of bass player had become an everlasting interim vacancy and Brian Eno was at the point of leaving the band. It’s the track that kind of stands out on the album, being a spoken declaration of love to an inflatable doll, while it musically reminds of Talking Heads meets David Bowie. After Ferry is in control for the first three minutes, Manzanera is allowed to go on an instrumental razzle before Eno concludes the song with an ode to ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.

3. Arcade Fire – Wake Up (Funeral, 2004) [singlepic id=155 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Like stated earlier here and by many others elsewhere: a modern classic. Based around life companions Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, this Montreal band was gradually created in the beginning of this century after many temporary members and as many (on stage) fights. Funeral points to the many deaths within Butler’s and Chassagne’s  families while the album was created, although it didn’t result in a very dark sounding album. This song turned into a large venue hymn after several famous performances, by the band itself as well as other happenings. Not a personal favorite, although I like the ‘Mr. Blue Sky’- transition.

4. Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Walk Like a Giant (Psychedelic Pill, 2012) [singlepic id=286 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Sixteen minutes jam from Neil and his jamming friends, reuniting on this album after almost ten years. I think of it as a great album, on which Young doesn’t give a shit about the musical conventions in the world surrounding him, and freely travels back 40 years in time, to the world he wasn’t capable of changing back then.

5. Motörhead – No Class (No Sleep ‘til Hammersmith, 1981) [singlepic id=135 w=80 h=50 float=left]

The same amount of brutal power, but a little more to the point, originally from the band’s second studio album. Lemmy founded the band already in 1975, after having left Hawkind, but the classic line-up with Fast Eddie and Philthy Animal arised one year later. The self-epynomous debut album followed in 1977, supported by the ‘Beyond the Threshold of Pain’ tour. 1979 brought Motörhead’s second album Overkill, including this song that became one of the band’s famous live anthems. The wonderful name of that supporting tour?

6. Nirvana – Rape Me (In Utero, 1993) [singlepic id=397 w=80 h=50 float=left]

The tensions between Cobain and MTV during the Unplugged performance were already cited last time, and this song also has his own story within this context. It was the second single (along with ‘All Apologies’) from Nirvana’s third and last studio album and this time Nirvana wanted it to play at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. However, MTV insisted on replacing it by ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, leading to a refusal by the band to play at all. In the end (money, pressure, business, grubbiness), the argument was resolved by Nirvana agreeing to replace it by ‘Lithium’. However, Cobain gave MTV the creeps by starting to play ‘Rape Me’ before ultimately switching over to ‘Lithium’. Great track, good album.

7. Tindersticks – Ballad of Tindersticks (Curtains, 1997) [singlepic id=273 w=80 h=50 float=left]

A fan of their early work, especially that great second album. This third album as a whole certainly can’t top that level, but contains some of their best tracks. It must be a tough job to bring this drawn out music live, and that’s exactly where this song is about.

8. My Morning Jacket – Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 1 (Evil Urges, 2008) [singlepic id=107 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Predecessor of last week’s shuffled album and like I said earlier: a band that tries something new now and then, and sometimes that results in a fail. Or was this album just the essential step in ultimately ending up with the genius of Circuital? Whatever, this album in fact doesn’t contain more than a bunch of mistakes, a trio of solid songs and the sole reason that keeps the record in your collection: Part 2 of the shuffled song.

9. Jimi Hendrix Experience – Can You See Me (Are You Experienced, 1967) [singlepic id=25 w=80 h=50 float=left]

One of those typical power trio tracks on Hendrix’ debut (along with ‘May This Be Love’), inspired by Eric Clapton’s Cream and with a prominent role for drummer Mitch Mitchell. Blues rocker Hendrix injected his play with the booming psychedelic rock, supported himself with a steady bass player and drummer like his Yardbirds heroes Clapton, Beck and Page and defined the new genre of hard rock.

10. Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Pt. 2 (Brain Salad Surgery, 1973) [singlepic id=396 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Well, this also was some kind of a power trio, although in a totally other way. Keith Emerson eventually became one of the most famous keys wizards in the history of rock music and originally played in The Nice, Greg Lake sang and played the bass in King Crimson and Carl Palmer came from the less known group Atomic Rooster to play the drums. This was their fourth album, after the self-epynomous debut, their most famous album Tarkus and Trilogy. With their own record label and recording studio (an abandoned cinema), they were ready to push all limits on this records, resulting in prog in its most extreme form. By the way: Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell was originally approached by Emerson and Lake to join them, after which Cream’s manager recommended Carl Palmer. Oh, and Lemmy? He once was a roadie for Emerson’s former band The Nice.

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“Move over, Rover and let Jimi take over”: Are You Experienced (The Jimi Hendrix Experience)

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Year: 1967

Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Hard Rock

Preceded by: –

Followed by: Axis: Bold as Love (1967)

Related to: Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin, Blue Cheer – Vincebus Eruptum

 

 

Let’s have another walk through the treasure chamber of 1967. Pete Townshend and Jeff Beck were turning guitar players into absolute stars and Clapton was God. But suddenly a black American lands in the UK and asks the white rock scene: Are You Experienced ?

As you know, 1967 can not be seen apart from the uprising of psychedelic rock. Existing blues and folk rock bands began to use new techniques and effects which would later cause the establishment of prog and hard rock. Jimi Hendrix himself can be seen as one of the most important pioneers of this latter genre. Originally being a blues rocker, he incorporated those psychedelic elements to transform his original style to pure hard rock. That’s exactly what makes Are You Experienced such an incredible debut album, containing not only Hendrix’ blues roots, but also psychedelic effects he mastered perfectly thanks to his extreme talent as a guitar player, and the origins of hard rock.

Hendrix (as a guitarist) supported some acts like Little Richard during the mid sixties in the USA, before former Animals bass player Chas Chandler heard Hendrix perform the classic American song ‘Hey Joe’. Chandler soon became his manager and brought him to the UK, for Hendrix being the promised land as it was the native country of The Yardbirds, a band Hendrix greatly admired. Together with Hendrix, the different members of this band would later define the new genre of hard rock, as they were soon to form pioneer bands like Cream (Eric Clapton), The Jeff Beck Group (Jeff Beck) and Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page). So Chandler would arrange a so-called ‘power trio’ (just like Cream) for Hendrix, which formed in October 1966 and consisted besides Hendrix of former jazz drummer Mitch Mitchell and  former guitarist Noel Redding, who would from now on play the bass, obviously.

In June 1969 the band would already break up again, after growing tensions between Hendrix and Redding. But during those three years the band released a magnificent trilogy of albums, being Are You Experienced (1967) – Axis: Bold as Love (1967) – Electric Ladyland (1968), all three of them ranked within the top 100 of ‘Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time’. A little more tragic thing about the band is that they were all found dead in their homes or some hotel room. For Hendrix of course this already happened in 1970, Redding was found dead in 2003 and Mitchell was the last man standing after passing away in 2008.

Back to 1967, when their debut was released after already launching three singles: besides ‘Hey Joe’, these were ‘Purple Haze’ and ‘The Wind Cries Mary’. This must have contributed to the success of the album (with the singles excluded, opposite to the US version, where some original album tracks like ‘Red House’ were replaced by the singles instead), reaching #2 in the UK behind Sgt. Pepper’s and staying there for 8 months. Let’s have a look at the 11 original tracks.

Like I said there’s blues rock, psychedelic rock and hard rock on this album. Far out the most bluesy song is ‘Red House’, which sounds like the early blues of Robert Johnson, intensified by Hendrix’ guitar. The song was already written by Hendrix before he joined The Experience, and has this typical blues theme of the singer which is left alone by his woman. The same goes in fact for the track ‘Remember’, the other blues rock song on the  album.

Best represented is psychedelic rock, making this the most psychedelic Hendrix album. First there are the shorter ‘3 minutes’ songs, with ‘Can You See Me’ (with a noteworthy role for drummer Mitch Mitchell), ‘May This Be Love’ (sounding a little bit like Cream, with a very dreamy voice of Hendrix) and ‘Love or Confusion’. This last one is a personal favorite, with the Airplane-like distorted sounds and the delicious guitar licks and powerful voice of Hendrix. Towards the end of the album are two longer psychedelic masterpieces. ‘Third Stone from the Sun’ (the title referring to earth) is mostly an instrumental one with lots of guitar effects and Hendrix talking like some character from Star Trek. If you play this track on the LP at single speed (45 RPM), you can actually hear what’s been said. The last track on the album, also the title track, is probably my favorite. Supported by his screaming guitar, Jimi invites us on a journey, making this song a true hippie-anthem (with lyrical similarities to The Doors’ ‘Break on Through’, from their own debut album of 1967).

What’s left are those riff-based, real hard rock songs that really turned the music scene upside down. First of all the opening track, the well-known ‘Foxy Lady’. Drifted by the catchy guitar riff and the pounding drum and bass section, this is a perfect start for an album. It’s still covered now and then during live gigs by Paul McCartney, who was a big fan of Hendrix. It’s followed by ‘Manic Depression’, another very Cream-like song with a couple of nice drum solos. Alltogether, this sounds like a stormy kind of waltz, and is supposed to be ‘about a cat wishing he could make love to music’, awesome song. ‘I Don’t Live Today’ is another sweet riff-based song, referring to the chaotic life of Hendrix.

The last song left is ‘Fire’, which really shows the capacity of the total band, not Hendrix alone. For me, the label ‘power trio’ is justified best on this song: it begins with a mighty drumintro and a minimal guitar riff, before exploding into an uptempo hard rock classic, propelled by a schizophrenic drum beat and a very catchy bass line from Redding. No surprise the group often opened their live gigs with this song. It’s a pity we won’t be able to witness those powertrips anymore, but you can make up for it by having this album in your record collection.

Top Tracks:
1. Are You Experienced?
2. Fire
3. Love or Confusion