martedì 24 febbraio 2009

Dancing with tears in my eyes...



Let's continue to explore the live side of X.

First gig is taken from Live From the Masque, Vol. 2: We We Can Can Do Do What What Here (here the AllMusic review), recorded in 1978
Enjoy n.1

The second you'll find a wonderful wonderful wonderful acoustic set in 1995
Enjoy n.2

Previous photo comes from X Official Web Site

domenica 22 febbraio 2009

We're desperate!!!


From now, I'll present you some gigs of one of my preferred bands.
I grew up with X and the typical way of singing of exene even now makes me mad!












X live at club 88 Los Angeles 10 January 1981

early show

late show



from ALLMUSIC.COM

X were the quintessential L.A. punk rockers before they grew into a world-class rock & roll band and live band; however, enthusiasm for their unique, intelligent and humorous work never quite reached critical mass.

Formed in 1977 after songwriter and bassist John Doe (b. Feb. 24, 1956) met (and later married) Exene Cervenka (b. Feb. 1, 1956) at a Venice poetry workshop, with rockabilly veteran Billy Zoom (b. Feb. 20, 194?) on guitar and D.J. Bonebrake (b. Dec. 8, 1955) on drums, the band garnered an immediate following. "Discovered" by ex-Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek, he took the band into the studio for the recording of Los Angeles in 1980. It was curious, at a time when punks were supposed to hate hippies, that X's merging with an ex-Door was not only tolerated, but earned them stature as California's preeminent punk band when the record earned across-the-board raves. 1981 saw the release of the similarly punked-up Wild Gift, while their 1982 album, Under the Big Black Sun, began what would be a long career in merging hard rock, country and folk into their fiery mix. The band successfully began to mix in their populist politics with an eye toward matters of the heart.

As the band began to reach wider audiences, both Doe and Cervenka enjoyed outside careers in the arts -- he as an actor in films like Great Balls of Fire and Roadside Prophets, and she as a poet and spoken-word artist, collaborating with Lydia Lunch and Wanda Coleman.

In 1983, the rootsy songs on More Fun in the New World lent themselves to acoustic performances which the band had taken to trying live. They took it one step further on their side project, the Knitters (with Dave Alvin) which yielded one Slash album, Poor Little Critter in the Road, in 1985. Ain't Love Grand was a harder rock album in 1986 and was followed by Zoom's departure. He was momentarily replaced by Alvin, but for recording purposes, the band recruited Tony Gilkyson (formerly of Lone Justice) for See How We Are, the band's most decidedly hard-rock record in the catalog. Gilkyson stayed for the recording Live at the Whisky A Go-Go in 1988 before the band took some much-needed time off, although they never broke up. In the interim, Doe and Cervenka had since divorced, and the pair continued to work as solo artists, releasing Cervenka's Old Wives Tales (Rhino, 1989) and Running Sacred (1990) and Doe's Meet John Doe for Geffen in 1990.

By 1993, the band got together for the recording of Hey Zeus!, a collection of new songs, but the response was underwhelming, and it was back to solo work. Doe released Kissingsohard for Rhino in 1995. Exene also released Surface to Air Serpents for the 2.13.61 label, as well as a reading of the Unabomber Manifesto, after changing her name to Cervenkova. During their frequent hiatuses, X would occasionally appear in Los Angeles and San Francisco and during one stay, recorded a live album in San Francisco in 1995, Unclogged, and self-released it. Cervenkova's latest project is Auntie Christ with Bonebrake and Matt Freeman of Rancid. Gilkyson also works as a solo artist. X also appeared in three films: Penelope Spheeris' punk documentary The Decline of Western Civilization, Urgh! A Music War, and a documentary of their lives and times, The Unheard Music. Beginning in 1998, founding member Billy Zoom returned to the fold for a series of on-again/off-again shows and limited touring; a pair of 2004 Los Angeles concerts were recorded and videotaped for Live in Los Angeles, released both as an audio CD and video DVD in the spring of 2005.

domenica 8 febbraio 2009

A web of sound

We continue to explore the wonderful world of Seeds.
Let's go to second LP by our heroes: A web of sound. It sounds familiar to me, isn't it???

Enjoy

sabato 7 febbraio 2009

Garagepsychedelic moods



The name of this place comes from an LP of the Seeds, lead by Sky Saxon, so this is their first album.

Seeds - ST (1966)

Enjoy


Official site of Sky Saxon

From ALLMUSIC.COM
Biography by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Best known for their rock & roll standard "Pushin' Too Hard," the Seeds combined the raw, Stonesy appeal of garage rock with a fondness for ragged, trashy psychedelia. And though they never quite matched the commercial peak of their first two singles, "Pushin' Too Hard" and "Can't Seem to Make You Mine," the band continued to record for the remainder of the '60s, eventually delving deep into post-Sgt. Pepper's psychedelia and art rock. None of their new musical directions resulted in another hit single, and the group disbanded at the turn of the decade.

Sky Saxon (born Richard Marsh; vocals) and guitarist Jan Savage formed the Seeds with keyboardist Daryl Hooper and drummer Rick Andridge in Los Angles in 1965. By the end of 1966, they had secured a contract with GNP Crescendo, releasing "Pushin' Too Hard" as their first single. The song climbed into the Top 40 early in 1967, and the group immediately released two sound-alike singles, "Mr. Farmer" and "Can't Seem to Make You Mine," in an attempt to replicate their success; the latter came the closest to being a hit, just missing the Top 40. While their singles were garage punk, the Seeds attempted to branch out into improvisational blues-rock and psychedelia on their first two albums, The Seeds (1966) and Web of Sound (1966). With their third album, Future (1967), the band attempted a psychedelic concept album in the vein of Sgt. Pepper's. While the record reached the Top 100 and spawned the minor hit "A Thousand Shadows," it didn't become a hit. Two other albums — Raw & Alive: The Seeds in Concert at Merlin's Music Box (1968) and A Full Spoon of Seedy Blues (1969), which was credited to the Sky Saxon Blues Band — were released at the end of the decade, but both were ignored. The Seeds broke up shortly afterward.

During the early '70s, Saxon led a number of bands before retreating from society and moving to Hawaii. Savage became a member of the Los Angeles Police Department. A collection of rarities and alternate takes, Fallin' off the Edge, was released in 1977.

Welcome

Welcome, readers and listeners.
After some year of reading other blogs, I think it's the time to start a blog by myself.
I'll share music I love with you, so here you'll find garage punk, northern soul, power pop, traditional ska & rocksteady, beat and so on...
Most of material is not mine, so I thank all my "contributors" from soulseek, e-mule and other blogs.
I hope you like what I like.
Ciao

how much do you love me?