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Dan Michaels , and bassist Mike Sauerbrey . The story ’ s protagonist is Ellis ( a name extracted from the band ’ s initials ), a picker in the Southern California orange groves owned by Colonel Peckesen . During opening track “ Ellis in the Orchard ,” Peckesen learns that the pickers under Ellis ’ watch have abandoned the grove in favor of working the vineyards up north , lured away by the charismatic Grape Prophet . Peckesen sends Ellis to retrieve the workers before the orange crop spoils . Instrumental track “ Travels ” is grinding goth-punk a la Bauhaus and Concrete Blonde that provides the soundtrack for Ellis ’ troubled journey toward gentrified wine country , with the slash and twang of Doidge ’ s guitar slicing the atmosphere above Sauerbrey ’ s rumbling bass . The feral and furious “ The Fold ” devolves into a glassy-eyed zombie ’ s mantra , with a subdued siren vocal beckoning the listener to “ come into the fold .” “ Wino of the Red is Stained ” is a pogo punk rocker with wisps of the B-52s ’ cowbell-clanging dance club acumen and Generation X ’ s sneering , heavy pop . The overall sound of ** The Grape Prophet draws upon early 90s altrock sounds deployed by acts like Jane ’ s Addiction ( try the adrenalized “ She Said ”). The unsettling “ A Group of Prophets Predict the Pickers ’ Future without Them ” unfolds against the sound of Cummings ’ recorded drums played backward , summoning a nauseating fever dream with imagery of control and mental abuse . Knott gives voice to another prophet who tells a group of young women of their lurid fates on Hollywood Boulevard had they not heeded his commands . The cadence recalls Red Hot Chili Peppers ’ “ Give it Away .” / Hindalong serves as the voice of the gibberish-spouting Grape Prophet during “ The Grape Prophet Speaks ,” taking the role of a leader who obscures the message to his flock by speaking in riddles . “ He speaks in poetry that only I can bend ,” sings Knott as the Grape Prophet ’ s spokesman during “ English Interpreter of English .” Lest any comparisons make L . S . Underground or Knott ’ s chameleonic shifts in sound seem derivative , consider that the clattering piano echoes and crowd sonics during “ The Grape Prophet ” closely foreshadow sounds that producer Dave Fridmann and the Flaming Lips would employ much later in the decade . “ Ellis Speaks with Prophets ” offers a rare throwback , echoing the melancholy twist of “ Die Baby Die ” from the ** Shaded Pain album with an extra dose of shadowy gloom . Punctuated by Dan Michaels ’ coolly detached saxophone , closing doom-rock instrumental “ Back to the Orchard ” leaves the question open : Does Ellis return to Colonel Peckesen with the pickers in tow , or does he return empty-handed ? The band is electrifying , but Knott ’ s singular voice is most certainly the centerpiece of The Grape Prophet . He croons and howls . Knott drops into a spectral baritone a la Peter Murphy at one moment and creates twisted , layered shrieks a la Perry Farrell during the next . The blankets of cacophonous and warped voice concluding “ Wino of the
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Red is Stained ” remain unnerving and eerie , all these years later .
Lost in Ohio celebrates this daring album by returning it to print after nearly 30 years with remastered CD and vinyl reissues . The new release offers four bonus cuts . Knott revisits “ Ellis in the Orchard ,” “ The Fold ,” “ English Interpreter of English ,” and “ She Said ” with rich and reimagined acoustic versions that are adorned by Rick McDonough ’ s spacious pedal steel and Luke Moller ’ s elegant strings . ( lostinohio . com )
– Jeff Elbel
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THE GO-GO ' S God Bless The Go-Go ' s
( Eagle )
Praise for director Alison Ellwood ’ s recent documentary film The Go-Go ’ s has sparked renewed interest in this pivotal ‘ 80s band . It ’ s a perfect time to reevaluate its 2001 reunion effort God Bless the Go-Go ’ s as well , and the album ’ s debut pressing on cool blue vinyl does the music proud . This praiseworthy set followed Talk Show by 17 years and stands as the most muscular batch of guitar-fueled rockers the quintet produced . It ’ s the collection that most clearly reveals the band ’ s roots in the late ‘ 70s Los Angeles punk scene , while retaining the melodic pop sensibility that scored chart hits with “ Our Lips are Sealed ,” “ We Got the Beat ,” “ Vacation ,” and “ Head Over Heels .” The brash blast of “ Unforgiven ” find these women taking control as the song ’ s protagonist rescinds the state of grace offered to a former lover . The song features the signature sound of Charlotte Caffey ’ s twanging guitar melody , and was written by principal writers Caffey and Jane Wiedlin in collaboration with avowed fan Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day . The adrenalin surge of “ La La Land ” is a rallying cry for the band ’ s return to action and a celebration of its
Del Amitri
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movies can ’ t explain away ? JC : No , but there ’ s a phenomenon called a Brocken Ghost , and it happens when you ’ re walking . Sometimes when you ’ re walking in the high mountains , there ’ s a weather phenomenon whereby if it ’ s misty and the sun hits the mist from a certain angle , you see this massive shadow in front of you , and your reflection . So it ’ s actually you , but it looks like a giant , a giant walking towards you . And apparently it ’ s horrifying when it suddenly happens . I know people that have seen it , and eventually they sort of calm down and realize that they ’ ve seen a Brocken ghost — this weird phenomenon that has to do with water droplets in the air . And I ’ d like to see that , but it ’ s supposed to be terrifying .
IE : How did you adapt to pandemic lockdown ? JC : Well , I ’ ve not been onstage since September 2019 , and that was just to play with a friend ’ s pub band . And the older we get , the less we go out . But I usually go — well , not every week , but I ’ m usually in a pub on a Friday night about 6 PM with a bunch of people , so I started really missing that . But when the pubs reopened over the
circa 1998
summer last year , I kind of got the fear — I had the COVID fear , so I didn ’ t mind sitting outside , but I didn ’ t want to be sitting inside . So actually , I was in the pub exactly four times last year . So when the pubs finally reopen , I ’ m gonna go because I do really miss that . I miss just bumping into people that you don ’ t know that well , and I miss being able to talk across a bar to people , and to even talk to a group of people , in person . The Zoom thing is okay , but it ’ s just not as compelling as just being there in the flesh , you know ?
IE : Well , that ’ s the cool concept of the pub , which is short for public house — you can just sit down at a long shared table , drink neighborly beer like Guinness or Boddingtons , and have a great , non-drunken conversation with a friend from down the street or a stranger from around the world . You never know who you ’ ll meet . JC : Yeah . What I really like is just to sit next to somebody in a pub on a Sunday night , and he ’ s ten years retired and used to work in the shipyards , and he ’ ll tell you about old Glasgow , and all these things that you don ’ t know . But all that stuff ’ s just cut off from you during COVID , and that ’ s quite distressing . And in beautiful cities like Paris or Rome , maybe it ’ s different . But somewhere like Glasgow , which is not a pretty town . To take the people out of it , it ’ s just awful . It ’ s just a desert , and it ’ s really ugly , and there ’ s people just trolling around with nothing to do , looking really miserable . So it ’ s really the bars and the clubs and the people on the streets that just make it a really entertaining place to live . You take that away , and it ’ s just awful .
IE : What did you find yourself getting into during all this down time ? Did you write ? Do jigsaw puzzles ? JC : I did a bit of writing , but the first two or three things I wrote were so obviously about lockdown . And I just thought that everybody ’ s gonna be writing the same song , because everybody ’ s gonna be living the same life . So nobody ’ s got anything original to say . And it took me about five or six months to write something that wasn ’ t about lockdown , and I hope I ’ ve gotten out of that stage now . But yeah , I ’ ve just been doing what everybody else has been doing — I ’ ve been catching up on a lot of movie watching , reading a bit more than I normally do , and getting out for the odd walks . But mainly I ’ ve just been doing emails and Zoom . Because the album was finished and we spent quite a long time mixing it , I had to mix it remotely , the rest
of the time has been spent just setting up the album , and it ’ s just been happening . So it ’ s a bit like working in an office , without the possibility that there might be a gig at the end of it , which is really frustrating . I realized within a couple of months of lockdown that by April , maybe May , it was the longest I ’ d ever spent not being on a stage since I was 15 . And I ’ m 56 , so you really miss that — you miss that adrenaline thing . IE : Ironically , Fatal Mistakes is almost the perfect soundtrack for these times . And it ’ s certainly conscious of mortality , with death being mentioned in two song titles alone . JC : Yes , it is . Death rears its ugly head , and in the most obvious of ways . And I was saying this just yesterday — the songs that tend to cement your reputation most as a writer are , well , songwriters write their best stuff when they ’ re young , they write their best things before they ’ re 23 . And those songs tend to be better because they ’ re about all the things you ’ re discovering , like sex and falling in love and falling out of love . And when you ’ re this age , you know as much as you ’ re ever
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