Illinois Entertainer January 2019 | Page 24

Continued from page 28 turing Jagger and Richards’ blended voic- es, joined during its coda by a fervent Gospel chorus and Hopkins’ rowdy piano. The set’s second platter features the original mono mix of “Sympathy for the Devil” in high-fidelity 45RPM occupy- ing a full side of 12” heavyweight vinyl. The reissue’s gatefold packaging features Barry Feinstein’s now-familiar and much- disputed bathroom-graffiti artwork that delayed the album’s original release as the band clashed with label executives, taste- fully hidden inside the sanitized wed- ding-invitation graphics of a wraparound slipcover. Also included is a flexible-disc recording of a 1968 telephone interview with Mick Jagger for London Records’ Japanese distributor. The young Jagger is cagey with details about new titles and songs, but the singer answers questions about contemporary work by so-called rivals The Beatles and describes the cre- ation of the Stones’ new album as “absolute lunacy.” – Jeff Elbel 8 HIGH ON FIRE Electric Messiah (E1 Music) No metalhead seems to be working harder than guitarist/singer-songwriter Matt Pike. Fresh off the success of his other band’s first full-length release in 20 years (Sleep’s The Sciences) comes the eighth studio album from his more linear outfit. Opening track “Spewn From The Earth” and title track “Electric Messiah” are uptempo burners with a relentless drumline and fuzzed-out power-chords reverberating to the point where it’s not clear where notes begin or end. Pike’s beyond gruff vocal delivery is lost in this sludgy mix to hypnotic effect. Mid-tempo tracks like “Steps Of The Ziggurat/House Of Enlil” (clocking over nine minutes) and “Sanctioned Annihilation” allow space for the tribal drumming to build. The latter track features the most rhythmic instru- mentation with its use of double-bass drumming and syncopated chord strum- ming. “The Witch And The Christ” is another textured and multi-tempo arrangement that allows drummer Des Kensel to lead the way amid Pike’s fully throated declarations. Where Sleep’s droning ethos causes introspection and daydreaming, High On Fire's Electric Messiah is the much-needed rude awaken- ing that always seems to follow. – Jason Scales guest Susanna Hoffs. Rain Parade makes a psychedelic epic of the Three O’Clock’s “As Real as Real.” “We adore this tune as it has everything we like about psychedelic music,” says Matt Piucci. With languid Velvet Underground-styled guitar drone, Stephan Junca’s “Ticket to Ride” drumbeat and Steven Roback’s sun-stoned vocal, the affection is evident. The Paisley Underground wasn’t a genre; it was a scene. These songs don’t sound alike, but they belong together. Nostalgia has its place in 3x4, but it’s not at the head of the table. The love of friends and their collec- tive musical dreams are the unifying ele- ments that make this project so wonderful to spin again and again. – Jeff Elbel 7 7 THE BANGLES, THE DREAM SYNDICATE, THE THREE O'CLOCK, RAIN PARADE 3X4 (Yep Rock) The four core bands of Los Angeles’ Paisley Underground scene of the ‘80s regrouped in 2013 for a charity concert. These old friends reconnected and hatched the idea of covering each other’s songs. The most commercially successful of the gathered acts was the Bangles, who charted hit singles including the 1986 #1 pop hit “Walk Like an Egyptian.” The Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade and the Three O’Clock have all maintained their influence and mystique outside of the mainstream, with the members remaining active in various musical pursuits. Dream Syndicate has experienced a significant revival since 2012, with 2017’s How Did I Find Myself Here? measuring up to the potent legacy of classic albums like Medicine Show. Dream Syndicate’s cover of the Bangles breakout single “Hero Takes the Fall” becomes the most promi- nent track on 3x4 due to its familiarity, but the context makes the song even more compelling. In an engaging booklet of liner notes with contributions by each artist, Dream Syndicate singer Steve Wynn reveals that the anti-hero of the withering “Hero Takes a Fall” is none other than himself. He takes his medicine gracefully. “It’s also quite fair,” he writes. “Those weren’t my best days.” Later, he adds, “If a perfect, three-minute pop song had to be my comeuppance, my punish- ment, well then, I got off pretty easy.” Bassist Mark Walton and drummer Dennis Duck propel the Dream Syndicate version while Wynn and Jason Victor mesh slashing alt-rock guitars. The Bangles return the favor on “That’s What You Always Say” from Dream Syndicate’s Days of Wine and Roses album. Vicki Peterson describes her instant connection to the song from early Dream Syndicate shows, and how she let her lead guitar howl in tribute to the “unbridled yowl” of original guitarist Karl Precoda. The Three O’Clock play a loving and respectful ver- sion of Rain Parade’s marvelous jangle- pop single “What She’s Done to Your Mind” that captures its influential roots in the Byrds and adds a sky-sailing solo by Louis Gutierrez. Michael Quercio’s melodic bass underscores his shimmering vocal harmony with Adam Merrin and guest Susanna Hoffs. Rain Parade makes 24 illinoisentertainer.com january 2019 Discreet Music was an important step toward his Ambient series. The side-length “Discreet Music” pieces parts 1 and 2 intro- duce simple sequences that delay and unfold back onto themselves in the Frippertronics technique developed on 1973’s No Pussyfooting album with King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp. Interestingly, my initial playback of Part 1 was eloquent, expressive and satisfying when accidentally played at 33 RPM. At proper speed, the sequence was equally pastoral but more uplifting as designed. The album’s second half includes three inventive variations upon excerpts from Pachelbel’s “Canon in D Major,” wherein Eno manipulates performances by the Cockpit Ensemble strings. The setting of 1978’s Music for Airports is obvious, but it’s hard to imagine Chicago’s O’Hare International airport as being represented as serenely as anything that unfolds on the album’s four meditative and almost hym- nal sides. “1/1” has a calming effect as Robert Wyatt’s thrumming piano traces an unhurried melody. Perhaps it’s because Eno envisioned this music during the gold- en age of glamorous air travel, long before the TSA had anything to do with it. – Jeff Elbel 8 RICHARD LLOYD The Countdown BRIAN ENO Discreet Music Ambient 1: Music For Airports Ambient 4: On Land (UMe/Virgin/EMI.) Key entries from Brian Eno’s ambient music catalog enjoy the deluxe treatment in these Abbey Road remasters helmed by Miles Showell. Ambient 1: Music for Airports, Ambient 4: On Land, and Discreet Music are among titles releasing as half- speed mastered, 45 RPM, two-LP sets for top-quality audio. Distant bell tones chime hypnotically in a distant sound field as machines hum and a sonic haze of elec- tronic wind drift through the foreground of On Land’s “The Lost Day.” “Tal Coat” threads a burbling synthesizer into a hyp- notic drone, accented by rich swells of bass and the uneasy tension of arid static. Other songs incorporate sounds found outdoors, including clattering rocks and frog song. By its nature, this music emphasizes the underlying character (i.e., the ambiance) of each song’s setting, and these new masters allow listeners to picture themselves with- in the environment of tracks like “Dunwich Beach, Autumn, 1960” and its vanished seaport. Eno may have imagined his music deployed as background materi- al, but he also filled the songs with detail and imagination. Does the sound of “Lizard Point” evoke the sun-bleached peak of a desert rock formation? Does “Lantern Marsh” feel dark and humid, claustrophobic and surrounded by insects and furtive animal life? Whatever the imagery, ideally the sonics are experienced through immersive audio, and On Land makes for wonderfully evocative head- phone listening. Eno wrote in 1978 that his ambient music was meant to induce calm and a space to think while retaining the sense of genuine interest that background music like Muzak erased with its bland homogeneity. In 1975, Eno’s concept of generative music was evolving, and (Plowboy) Founding Television guitarist and Matthew Sweet sideman Richard Lloyd returns with his eighth solo album full of sharp post-punk riffs and pop savvy. From the opening notes of “Wind in the Rain,” Lloyd reminds us all that Tom Verlaine wasn’t the sole source of lightning cap- tured on 1977’s Marquee Moon. Each song on The Countdown including the rumina- tive “Smoke” is built upon a bristling gui- tar lick in Lloyd’s inimitable style and heightened by his potent lead work. Atop a grim and gripping minor-key groove, Lloyd peels off sinewy and anguished fig- ures during “So Sad” that will remind longtime listeners of Television’s “Friction.” Overall, The Countdown is edgy and organic, benefitting from live-in-the- studio takes with the backbone of bassist David Roe and drummer Steve Ebe that allow Lloyd ample room to take flight. Ebe creates a thundering groove that is both tribal and strangely urbane during “Run.” Roe propels the power-popping and para- doxically noisy “Whisper” with spiky but soulful punk bass a la Graham Maby’s reli- able bottom-end for Joe Jackson’s “I’m the Man.” Lloyd’s rough-hewn and weathered voice isn’t the album’s main attraction and may be an acquired taste for some, but it’s an honest vehicle that charms during the romantic and lighthearted snap of “I Can Tell.” After an album brimming with out- sider observations, stratospheric guitar soars alongside Joe Bidwell’s percolating organ during “Countdown” as Lloyd pre- pares to wave goodbye from outer space since he’s “had enough of planet Earth.” Fans of any level are directed toward Lloyd’s fascinating 2017 memoir Everything is Combustible: Television, BGB’s and Five Decades of Rock and Roll. Grab the book and read about Lloyd’s unconven- tional and barely believable (but true!) past while playing The Countdown to hear what he’s up to as he approaches decade num- ber six. – Jeff Elbel 7