Anathema: Universal (coming soon)

By Michael J.W. Stickings

On September 23, the great post-prog label Kscope is releasing Anathema's Universal, a four-disc set (2 CD, DVD, Blu-ray) of the band's September 2012 show at the ancient Roman theater in Plovdiv, Bulgaria (also known by its Greek name, Philippopolis), with the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra. It was filmed by Lasse Hoile, best known for his work with Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson's solo projects, and it looks like it'll be fantastic even on TV.

Don't know Anathema? Seriously, you're missing out on an incredible band. I've blogged about them twice, posting clips of two of their best songs, "Untouchable, Part 1" and "A Natural Disaster," and here's what I wrote about them in the first of those posts: 

Now on the post-prog Kscope label, Anathema started out in the early '90s as a death/doom metal band and only later, particularly with 1999's Judgement, morphed into the prog rock superpower it is today. I first became a fan after the release of A Fine Day to Exit in 2001, but I lost track of them a bit after that. A Natural Disaster (2003) was good, We're Here Because We're Here, mixed by Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson, was better (and their best album up to that time), but it's the amazing Weather Systems that has truly brought me back.

The winner of Prog magazine's 2012 Critics' Choice award for best album (third in the Readers' Poll, with Anathama named Band of the Year), Weather Systems is a challenging and deeply moving album about the inevitability of death and the capacity of love if not to overcome then at least to comfort us in the face of mortality. Some may find it overwrought, I find it glorious.

Universal is from the Weather Systems tour, which is bringing Anathema to North America in September and October.

They really are awesome. Enjoy the trailer, but go listen to their music.

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Steven Wilson: "The Raven that Refused to Sing" (live)

By Michael J.W. Stickings

It's been some time since I've posted anything from Porcupine Tree or Steven Wilson -- and, if you know me, you know how much I love them (and perhaps also how much I blog about them).

So without further ado, here is the great Steven Wilson, with his incredible band (not PT -- this is a solo effort for which he has put together a new band), performing the title track off his brilliant 2013 album, The Raven that Refused to Sing (and Other Stories), in Neu-Isenberg, Germany, on March 23 of this year.

It's the best song on the album, in my view, and one of the best songs he's ever written. I saw them perform it in Toronto in April and it was truly one of the highlights of what was simply an awesome show. (Back in February, I posted the video for the song.)

Enjoy!

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Vienna Teng: "City Hall" -- a celebration of same-sex marriage

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Now would be a good time to post a clip of the wonderful Vienna Teng performing "City Hall," a pre-Prop 8 celebration of same-sex marriage.

It's off Vienna's 2006 album Dreaming Through the Noise (her best, in my view), and here she is performing the song at the famous Sun Studio in Nashville.

Some of the lyrics:

Outside, they're handing out
Donuts and pizza pies
For the folks in pairs in the folding chairs
My baby's lookin' so damned pretty
With those anxious eyes
Rain-speckled hair
And my ring to wear

Ten years waiting for this moment of fate
When we say the words and sign our names
If they take it away again someday
This beautiful thing won't change

Oh, me and my baby driving down
To a hilly seaside town in the rainfall
Oh, me and my baby stand in line
You've never seen a sight so fine
As the love that's gonna shine

At City Hall

The bigots are trying to take it away, even after this past week's historic Supreme Court rulings, but the country has changed, public opinion is on our side, and we're not going to let them take it away. Period.

Love shall prevail.

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Vimeo of the Day: "Horizons"

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Here's a beautiful video with some stunningly gorgeous images from photographer Randy Halverson, who describes it as follows:

If you have ever been in a wide open landscape the most interesting thing isn't necessarily the landscape itself, but what you see coming over the horizon. Growing up in South Dakota the landscape itself can be beautiful at times, but that doesn't compare to what the sky can do, especially at night. Combine that with the landscape, and it makes for great photo opportunities...

Bear McCreary (The Walking Dead, Defiance, Battlestar Galactica, etc) once again helped me with some original music for the video. This time he suggested adding vocals to the mix. Brendan McCreary and his band (Young Beautiful in a Hurry) did just that. They came up with "I Forever."

The music is great, too. (For more on Bear McCreary, see here; for more on his brother Brendan and Young Beautiful in a Hurry, see here.)

Enjoy.

Horizons from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.

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Presidential Campaign Songs: Andrew Jackson - "The Hunters of Kentucky"

By Richard K. Barry

President Andrew Jackson used the song in both his 1824 and 1828 campaigns. This version is sung by Tom Roush. It is also known as "The Battle of New Orleans" and "Half Horse or Half Alligator." It was written in 1821 to commemorate Jackson's victory over the redcoats at the Battle of New Orleans. I guess Jackson liked it enough to use in his campaigns for the White House, or someone did. 

It was written by Samuel Woodworth. The reference to this song says that it was sung the "way Irish singers sing old stories in narrative form," and performed to the tune of "Alley Croker" and "The Unfortunate Miss Bailey." I don't know if that means it was sung without accompaniment, as older Irish music can be. 

Oddly enough, Jackson's biggest political rival, Henry Clay, was actually from Kentucky though Jackson was from Tennessee. The fact is that so many men under Jackson's command in New Orleans were from Kentucky, hence the song. 

This version below, though very nice, seems a bit modern. 

(Cross-posted at Phantom Public.)

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Patty Griffin: "Ohio" (feat. Robert Plant)

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I love Patty Griffin. I really do.

Ever since I first heard her 1996 debut album, Living With Ghosts, and specifically "Forgiveness," still perhaps her finest song, a standout even on that wonderful album.

Some of her more recent work -- as she has shifted to a more twangy and traditional rootsy sound, if still within the folk/Americana genre -- hasn't exactly been my taste, notably 2010's Downtown Church, for which she won her only Grammy thus far for Best Traditional Gospel Album, but she continues to be a remarkable singer-songwriter.

I prefer the stripped-down Living With Ghosts and the rather more commercial Flaming Red (1998), her second studio album, amazing from start to finish, but her three other albums before Downtown Church were all very good: 1000 Kisses (2002), with "Rain"; Imposible Dream (2004), with the powerfully moving "Top of the World" (covered by the Dixie Chicks on their 2002 album, Home); and Children Running Through (2007), with "Burgundy Shoes." And then there's her great 2003 live album, A Kiss in Time, as well as a Live from the Artists Den release from 2008.

(This is all a long way from the classic rock and post-prog stuff that I listen to most, but my musical tastes don't begin and end with Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree.)

Griffin's seventh studio album, American Kid, was released earlier this month. While like her other recent albums it's a bit too traditional and countryish in places for my liking, it's extremely beautiful. And its peak, in my view, is "Ohio," with Robert Plant, her long-time collaborator and partner, singing backup. It's another great Patty Griffin song, from another lovely Patty Griffin album. Here's the video. Enjoy!

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Progressive Music Classics: "Corner Soul" by The Clash

By Marc McDonald 

(Ed. note: Here's another installment of Marc's ongoing series. For the full series, check out his site. Our last two were The Unacceptable Face of Freedom by Test Dept. and "Everything That Rises Must Converge" by Shriekback. -- MJWS)


Few albums have ever been more highly anticipated than Sandinista!, the 1980 release by The Clash. The band's previous album, London Calling had been a all-conquering masterpiece that had music writers, particularly in the U.S., swooning.

I recall how, in 1979, The Clash was hailed by many music writers as "the only band that matters." For a brief time, at least, The Clash were clearly the best band in the world.

But when Sandinista! landed in the record shops, a mere four days after John Lennon's murder, it left many fans and writers baffled. Anyone who was expecting a sequel to London Calling was likely disappointed. The massive, triple-album Sandinista! frankly seemed bloated and full of a lot of strange music that had many people scratching their heads in confusion.

At the time, I recall there was two divergent opinions about Sandinista! in the U.S. and the U.K.

Music writers in Britain had failed to embrace London Calling as enthusiastically as their enraptured U.S. counterparts had. And upon first listen, Sandinista! seemed to confirm their worst suspicions about the band.

In Britain, the band was seen as having "sold out" to punk principles. The very fact that Sandinista! was a triple album worked against it. It seemed to embrace many of the bloated excesses of the 1970s progressive rock of ELP, Jethro Tull, and Yes. It was that very sort of thing that punk had rebelled against in the first place in Britain.

I still recall the scathing review in Britain's top music paper, New Musical Express, that savaged Sandinista! as inferior and "ridiculously self-indulgent."

However, in the U.S., it was a different story. Rolling Stone hailed Sandinista! as a five-star masterpiece.

Three decades later, we can look back and ask the question: which side of the Atlantic was right? Was Sandinista! indeed a failure and a "ridiculously self-indulgent" record? Or was it a five-star masterpiece?

The answer: both sides were right. Sandinista! was "ridiculously self-indulgent." It was also a masterpiece.

Whether you love Sandinista! or hate it, one thing The Clash could never be accused of is selling out. This was a massive record, full of strange, exotic, and often baffling sounds -- but with absolutely no considerations made for commercial appeal.

Additionally, The Clash, in order to give value for money to their fans, had insisted on selling the three-record set for the price of a single record. Amazingly, the band agreed to let their record company take the price difference out of their own pockets.

Between the fiercely anti-commercial nature of the record, and The Clash's insistence on "value for money" for their fans, Sandinista! represented a sort of idealism that simply doesn't exist in today's music scene. After all, most of today's musicians don't have much ambition beyond simply selling as much product as possible.

But despite the band's good intentions, Sandinista! was a commercial flop for The Clash. And the initial hostile reviews in England meant that the band couldn't even win favor among the powerful music press for their idealism.

Band leader Joe Strummer had poured his heart into the creation of Sandinista!. But what did it bring him? Nothing but hostile reviews and financial insecurity. The latter was made plain at the time, when Strummer and his girlfriend were turned down for a house loan. Nearing the age of 30, Strummer was beginning to get weary of his nomadic existence of living in squats, tiny flats, and borrowed apartments.

Three decades later, Sandinista! is still an often baffling, sometimes infuriating listen. But if you give it a chance, it's one of the most fascinating albums ever released. Strummer is at the top of his game with his intriguing lyrics, which for my money rival anything Dylan ever wrote. 

Sandinista! addresses a head-spinning variety of topics that have rarely been heard in a rock context: Third World rebellions and wars. The corrupt and decadent leadership that has sold out countries like Britain and America. Out-of-control multi-national corporations raping and pillaging the planet.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. The fact is, in today's world, Sandinista! is as relevant as ever. CIA goons are still prowling the planet. And corporate mercenaries are still raping and pillaging the Third World.

Upon first listen, the songs on Sandinista! often seem ragged around the edges. There is an "unfinished" quality to the record. It's almost as if the band was furiously working to crank out songs at light-speed while the inspiration was still hot.

At the time, Sandinista! production was criticized as "sloppy." But with the hindsight of years, it's clear that the often low-fi, ragged production perfectly suited the music. Indeed, a dose of Sandinista! is a perfect antidote to anyone who is sick to death of today's glossy, over-produced, sterile pop music.

Over the course of its 36 tracks, Sandinista! races from topic to topic and musical genre to musical genre.

One minute, the band is playing a bizarre form of dub. The next, they're doing a twisted take on gospel. The next, they're doing an unlike cover song by jazz pianist Mose Allison. The next, they're doing straight-ahead classic Clash rock. The experience of listening to Sandinista! is somewhat akin to listening to a wandering radio dial randomly tuning into various intriguing parts of the Third World. Only a band as talented and visionary as The Clash could have ever pulled this off.

The song "Corner Soul" (featured in the video above) has long been a favorite of mine from the album. It's a strange little song that conjures up the image of some sinister goings-on in a Third World nation, where rebels are battling an unknown enemy.

But who are they fighting? CIA-funded goons? A corrupt right-wing dictatorship? Mercenaries funded by Exxon Mobil or the United Fruit Company?

Who knows? But the fact is, battles like this have been raging in the Third World for decades now (often funded with U.S. tax dollars).

Strummer is wise enough not to turn the song into a hectoring rant against First World imperialism. Rather than spoon-feeding us a leftist rant, Strummer (as he so often does) keeps things ambiguous and leaves it up to our imaginations as to exactly what is going on. 

"Is the music calling for a river of blood?" Strummer sings in a bizarre, distorted production that is as surreal as anything ever cranked out by Lee "Scratch" Perry's legendary Black Ark studio.

There has never been another record made like Sandinista!. It was an album that engaged the real world (unlike the apolitical pap that comprises today's music). Sandinista! challenged us. And it got us to thinking about what was being done in our name by CIA goons and corporate mercenaries across the Third World.

As a risk-taking record with heart and soul, Sandinista! is the sort of record that today's cowardly, corporate-whore music artists simply don't make anymore.

(Cross-posted at BeggarsCanBeChoosers.)

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Ray Manzarek of the Doors (1939-2013)

By Richard K. Barry

Ray Manzarek was the keyboardist for the The Doors. He was also a founding member of the group. He died earlier this afternoon after a long battle with bile duct cancer. He was 74 years old.

CBC News:

Manzarek founded The Doors after meeting then-poet Jim Morrison in California. The band went on to become one of the most successful rock 'n' roll acts to emerge from the 1960s and continues to resonate with fans decades after Morrison's death brought an effective end to the band.

The Doors were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Manzarek is among the most notable keyboard players in rock history. His lead-instrument work with the band at a time when the guitar often dominated added a distinct end-times flavor that matched Morrison's often out there imagery and persona.

The group is best known for hits like L.A.Woman, Break On Through to the Other Side, The End and Light My Fire — a song particularly coloured by his keyboard work — and came to symbolize the decadence of Los Angeles as the counterculture grew in the U.S.

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Styx: "The Best of Times" (from the great Paradise Theater)

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Okay, let's head back through the mists of time...

Say what you want about Styx, when they were good, like at the height of their powers from 1977 to 1983, they were... really pretty good.

Oh, they're still around, sadly minus Dennis DeYoung, but those were the glory years, culminating in 1983's Kilroy Was Here, which featured "Mr. Roboto" and "Don't Let It End."

The Grand Illusion (1977), with "Don't Sail Away," was fine, as were Pieces of Eight (1978), with "Renegade" (played to much fanfare in the second half of Pittsburgh Steelers home games to rally the defense -- always an amazing thing, as I can attest), and Cornerstone (1979), with "Babe," but to me Styx hit its peak with 1981's Paradise Theater, truly a great album, the band's chemistry shining and each individual songwriter (DeYoung, Tommy Shaw, James Young) contributing his particular voice to the enterprise. It really is quite fantastic, even if it's also very much a product of its time, mature, adult-oriented soft rock of the early '80s.

To me -- and this is one of the first albums I can remember liking, back when I was first becoming a fan of pop music as a pre-teen) -- the best part of the album has always been the end of "Half-Penny, Two-Penny," a potent critique of American capitalism, and "A.D. 1958," the last two songs on the album before the short outro, "State Street Sadie," but there's no denying that the melancholy "The Best of Times," the moving end of Side 1, is among the best songs of the band's long career.

Seriously, go back and listen to this whole album. Discover, or rediscover, what Styx was all about. There's a lot to like.

And watch this, the music video for "The Best of Times," also very much a product of its time, for better and for worse:

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Anathema: "A Natural Disaster"

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Back in January, I blogged about the great British post-prog band Anathema, writing that their most recent album, Weather Systems, was one of the very best (if not the best) of 2012.

Here they are performing "A Natural Disaster," the title track off their 2003 album, at the Palladium in Cologne, Germany, on December 4, 2007.

(Yes, Lee Douglas, who sang the lead on this song on the album and has since become a full-fledged member of the band, is awesome.)

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