Artist: Best Coast
Title: The Only Place
Label: Mexican Summer 311092
Released: May 15, 2012

I have this odd habit of walking around the house and singing about my mundane tasks. I do this with the worst phrasing possible; elongating syllables to match the meter and usually doing it in a very narrow melodic space, somewhat droning.

If you took this annoying tendency I have and wrote a song for the California Department of Tourism, you would get, “The Only Place,” the new single from the second Best Coast LP of the same name. With lyrics like,

“We have fun/we have fun/we have fun/when we please.” and
“Yes we always/yes we always/yes we always/have fun.”

It leads one to believe Bethany Cosentino attended the Rebecca Black School of Songwriting. Not that the lyrics on the debut album, Crazy For You, were approaching Dylan, at least there was a sense of yearning finding its way through the fuzzy production. It was like the Shangri-Las became Valley Girls. Now the Valley Girls have become bored. These songs are like singing phone texts.

Structurally, there are some nice moments. There are good pop hooks and even the melodies are all right if they wouldn’t be delivered so stiffly. The opening to “Better Girl” could have been written by Marshall Crenshaw, but the phrasing of poor lyrics overshadow what could’ve been a great pop song.

I know it’s an impossible dream, but I wish I could hear what Dusty Springfield would’ve done with this record. If she were around to record the closing track, “Up All Night,” it would’ve been a classic. Soon, the only place for The Only Place is going to be in the used record bins.

Artist: Carole King
Title: The Legendary Demos
Released: May 8, 2012
Label: Hear Music / Concord 33827

Where much of pop music has been the flavor of the day, true craftsmanship stands the test of time. Carole King was a song craftsman. Here heyday was nearly two decades long and what made it last were these two-and-a-half minutes songs of love, loss, bliss, angst, protest and discovery, almost synonymous with a teen primer, but also themes that follow us through life.

The Legendary Demos is exactly what it states. These are the basic first takes of creations of King alone or with her songwriter partners. They were once pieces of paper filled with ideas that went cradled in her arms into a studio and came out as pieces with their own identities.

The album opens with “Pleasant Valley Sunday.” The song derived its name from Pleasant Valley Road, a byway that passed through West Orange, a Jersey suburb where Carole and her then-husband and collaborator, Jerry Goffin lived. Goffin’s lyrics clearly display his distaste for life in suburbia.

Where the Monkees provided the teen angst in the line “I need a change of scenery,” King possessed the only soul as she sang the travelogue through the vapid suburban life on a “Pleasant Valley Sunday.” It is a full-fledged production, complete with fellow studio hands, written for Don Kirshner and his pre-fab four.

Like “Just Once In My Life” (which was made famous by the Righteous Brothers), these songs are transitional in King’s career, bridging the gap between Bobby Vee’s teenybopper take on “Take Good Care Of My Baby” to the more poignant Toni Stern-King composition, “It’s Too Late.” While “It’s Too Late” approaches the lyrical phrasing and sound of the song we’d grow to know from Tapestry, “Take Good Care of My Baby,” really sounds like a sweet young lady pitching a song and carries a certain charm.

“Just Once In My Life” was composed to be the follow-up to the Righteous Brothers smash hit, “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling.” The composition shows King’s professional approach of custom-tailoring a song for an artist, as well as producer Phil Spector. Her self-harmonies suggesting the parts for the Brothers to harmonize and the distinct conversation in the verses serve this song to Medley and Hatfield on a gold plated platter. The same can be said for her demo of “Crying In The Rain,” this time with the Everly Brothers as the prospective purveyors.

There are thirteen tracks included on The Legendary Demos. It’s interesting and enjoyable to hear a work in progress. Many of the songs were later slightly tweaked by the artist or given the full attention of a studio from a producer, really not veering far from King’s delivery. That shows the amount of respect she held in the music business. Not only are the demos legendary, so is Ms. King.

Grade: A

Artist: Various
Title: Where Is Parker Griggs?
Label: Alive Records 01271
Released: January 9th, 2012

To answer the question, Parker Griggs is on tracks one and four on this label compilation. Griggs is a member of the two-piece power trio, Radio Moscow with bassist Zack Anderson. They hire a drummer for tours, otherwise, Griggs takes on the kit in the studio., along with lead vocals and guitar. “Open Your Eyes” soars in a land that’s part Hendrix, part Blue Cheer, where the words “too loud” do not exist. It is taken from their 2011 release, The Great Escape of Leslie Magnafuzz. Their other offering, the previously unreleased, “The Stranger” Griggs restrains himself in an acoustic boogie with occasional blasts of Zeppelin.

The only other previously released tracks on Where Is Parker Griggs are Brian Olive’s “Backsliding Soul” (which coincidently made my 2011 favorites play list), The Garden’s “Maze Time” and the White Noise Band’s “There Is No Tomorrow.” But, if you wait long enough, the cut by Lee Bains III and the Glory Fires, “Everything You Took” will be available on their Alive Records debut, which will be released in April of 2012.

The Alive website coined the term “psyouthern soul” to describe the Bains Band. I’m interpreting it as soulful southern-rock with psychedelic overtones. Whether my attempt at definition is correct or not, Alive Records does have an aural imprint. When you purchase an Alive release, you’re getting a nice slab of rock, with touches of blues, 60’s garage and psychedelic dust. Label identities are few and far between in this era of the music business. With the single-mindedness of downloads and coupled by the loss of the tangible good, not only does Alive Records create a sound, you can still get the music on vinyl. They’ve been ingenious in the promotions department, marketing the records on limited edition colored vinyl, setting their sites on the pocketbooks of music geeks like me. This compilation was limited to 200, pressed on clear orange vinyl. But if you just want to load up your iPod, the download comes with two extra tracks. So really, both customers, the hard copy nuts and the others who stepped into the new millennium both get rewarded.

From their vaults, a previously unreleased track from the Black Diamond Heavies, “Easy Money,” was unlocked. The track is reminiscent of Heart Attack and Vine era Tom Waits. James Legg pushes his keyboards through high levels of distortion while his voice lays a bed of gravel. The result is a cement mixer playing the blues.

Scott Morgan from the legendary Ann Arbor band, the Rationals, teams up with Henry’s Funeral Shoe on “Gimmie Back My Morphine.” Done in an early-seventies blues-rock idiom, “Morphine” is injected with two more Michigonians; Jim Diamond of the Dirtbombs and the Witches fame, and blues man Harmonica Shah. It’s a multi-generational salute to the Michigan music scene. I haven’t heard this song in twenty-four hours and now I’m experiencing insomnia, high blood pressure and tachycardia as well as involuntary leg movements.

The Buffalo Killers tracks, “Love Is Gold” and “Oh My Word” sound like Buffalo Springfield reunited during Neil Young’s Rust Never Sleeps days. Hacienda, the band that never seems to stop touring, contributes two tracks, “Love Me More” and the cover of “Look At That Girl.”

After hearing the Hacienda’s first release, Loud Is The Night, I embraced this band. I bought it on the strength of the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach saying, they sounded like “…Mexican-Americans obsessed with the Beach Boys.” Their follow-up release, Big Red & Barbacoa was even better. Coincidently, they go and cover an oldie that’s been on my recent radar.

Hacienda’s credits “Look At That Girl” to “Otis Redding Sony/ATV Songs, Trio Music Co.” I’m familiar with the song from it appearing on the posthumously released Love Man by Otis Redding. On Love Man, the song is credited to R. Stewart & E. Morris. It didn’t sound like typical Otis Redding soul. When I tried to backtrack to find who did the original, the songwriting credits led me to the Fiestas (of “So Fine” fame). It was not the song Otis covered.

One day while doing a little research on the band, The McCoys (“Hang On Sloopy,” “Fever”) I saw that they covered a song called “I Got To Go Back (And Watch That Little Girl Dance.” I found a forty-five of it, looked at the credits and it read “Berns/Barry,” which is Bert Berns and I’m presuming Jeff Barry. The rhythm, that of the Isley’s version of “Twist & Shout,” is signature Bert Berns. Plus, the McCoys recorded for Bang records, which was Bert Berns’ label. Case solved.

It’s just one of those strange coincidences that an old song that has been recently in your scope, shows up covered by one of your new favorite bands. Enough now with the history lesson, Alive Records is now. While many label compilations are similar to TV clip-shows – just a bunch of highlights from the past – Where Is Parker Griggs promotes itself with primarily tracks you won’t find anywhere else, but it also is a great survey of what Alive Record has to offer, to music geeks and the to rest of you with discerning taste.

Artist: Grand Funk Railroad
Title: Phoenix
Label: Capitol 11099
Purchased: January 9th, Cheapo Records, St. Paul, MN
Price: $3.60
Condition: Fine

The title Phoenix represents the band’s break with former manager, Terry Knight after a long year of litigation. It’s also the first LP that was self-produced. Although there is no mention of it on the cover or on the record, this is the last album where the band was known as Grand Funk Railroad. All future releases they would just be Grand Funk.

Bridging the past with the present, “Flight of the Phoenix” open their seventh album, riffing on their Top 40 hit, “Footstompin’ Music.” Craig Frost, listed as a guest on this album (but would later become a full-time member), pumps his keyboard, driving this boogie-rock number. About three-fourth the way through the song, what’s that? A fiddle? To my knowledge, neither Mark, Don, nor Mel was adept at the violin. It totally threw me off my boogie.

It’s not that it was uncommon at the time. Fiddler Papa John Creach, played with Jefferson Airplane / Starship as well as Hot Tuna. Don “Sugarcane” Harris performed with Zappa’s Mothers of Invention and the Pure Food & Drug Act. So if your funk is to be so grand, I can see augmenting your trio with Craig Frost’s keyboards, but a fiddle player? In one of the weirdest guest appearances, Doug Kershaw bows the strings to the boogie. The Louisiana Man showed them the Cajun Way and then went back off to the swamp, never to appear on another track on Phoenix.

“Trying To Get Away” and “Someone” are typical early heavy-rock fare, plodding along with a few tempo changes, something to ponder over a few tokes. “She Got to Move Me” provides a bit more energy with drummer Don Brewer adding spot harmonies to Mark Farner’s lead vocals. Both “Move Me,” and the closing track of side one, “Rain Keeps Fallin’” set the mood of a post-Woodstock hippie life, but the images conjured up in my head are trashy.

Side two opens with the socially aware “I Just Gotta Know,” with Farner providing a voice to the generation, “Hey people are you ready to get into the streets and be your own police?” This anti-war song never reached anthem status and was probably minimal fodder on underground FM stations back in ’72.

The album hits its lowest among lows with “So You Won’t Have To Die.” According to the lyrics, Farner claims that Jesus talked to him, telling him to write this song about the problem of overpopulation.

He said overpopulation is the problem of today.
There’s too many children on the earth, and more on the way.
If you don’t start some birth control, then you won’t last too much longer.
It’s best that we let it save our souls, so we can get much stronger.
Get much stronger.

…And get laid more often without worrying about paternity suits. Shine on you shirtless rock god. There is a future for you in Christian rock

The following track, “Freedom is for Children” is over six-minutes long (“Freedom is for children / ‘Cause they don’t understand what is wrong”). If you can get beyond that opening line, there’s more schlock to follow. The album has now been tainted and I no longer hear songs without pretense. “Gotta Find Me A Better Way” isn’t a bad song, but I think I’d like it better if it were by the James Gang.

The final track, “Rock & Roll Soul” is the song I was in pursuit of when purchasing this album. It has a certain idealism of the time; it’s arena rock that isn’t overplayed like “We’re An American Band.” This song and Craig Frost’s keyboard playing throughout the LP keep it from total failure. If you must purchase a Grand Funk LP, look to the Greatest Hits package. This Phoenix is not a resurrection of a power trio, rising from the ashes of previous rock triads like Cream. It’s more like a lame duck stuck in a grand funk, and not a good funk in the Sly Stone kind of way.

Artist: Marianne Faithfull
Title: Horses And High Heels
Label: Naïve 822861
Release Date: June 28, 2011

In a short documentary about the making of Horses and High Heels, producer Hal Willner said of Marianne Faithfull, “…This is a voice of a life. A life. A difficult life with a lot of happiness in it and a lot tragedy in it.” Willner ‘s association with Faithfull dates back to 1985 when she contributed to his project, Lost In The Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill. Her life in music before the Weill compilation is well documented; from her association with the Rolling Stones, to an attempted suicide, to failed rehabilitations, to a series of comebacks. Faithfull has walked the hard road.

She and Willner claimed this was to be her “happy” album. It was recorded in New Orleans with a rhythm section anchored by the former Meters bassist, George Porter Jr. Even with the inclusion of a cover of Joe & Ann’s, “Gee Baby,” Allen Toussaint’s “Back In Baby’s Arms” Dr. John’s piano and the Bobby Charles’ bonus track, “I Don’t Wanna Know” this is still not a New Orleans album. Willner professed it was the place to record such an album because of the wealth and depth of musical talent available.

The album is an experience. Between Faithfull’s personal drug-stained voice, the cross-hybridization of the songs, the pedigree of the musicians and songwriters, this is one of the rare projects where the sum of the contents is not lesser than the whole. Faithfull co-wrote four of the tracks. “Why Did We Have To Part” was a collaboration with French pop star, Laurent Voulzy. The song draws upon broken relationships, something that Faithfull knows of its familiarity. But because of her conversance with the topic, she delivers the song feeling regret, but yet there’s a sense of triumph when she sings in the bridge, “We are very good friends my love/ We have passed the wall of hate/But you know I’ll never come back again.”

Faithfull delivers Jackie Lomax’s “No Reason” like it was a Stones cover. Her near straight reading of Lesley Duncan’s “Love Song” comes off more ethereal with Carol Winton’s lap steel hanging in the air, like a soundtrack to a dream sequence.

What was once a teen opera – Jerry Leiber, Artie Butler and Shadow Morton’s “Past Present & Future” – now sounds like a trip through an adult psychosis. Faithfull has that flair for German theatre music so this rendition comes across like Bertolt Brecht meets the Shangri-La’s while confessing to Dr. Freud. “A (woman) should not strive to eliminate (her) complexes, but to get in accord with them: they are legitimately what direct (her) conduct in the world,” so Sigmund said. And it does apply on Horse and High Heels.

Toussaint’s “Back In Baby’s Arms” comes off like it was lifted from Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour. Like Cocker in his prime, Faithfull is a great interpreter. She’s a squatter, claiming what she lands on and taking ownership.

In 1987, working with Willner, they recorded the album, Strange Weather which featured a cove of “As Tears Go By.” In a Vogue magazine interview Faithfull commented on the song, “Forty is the age to sing it, not seventeen.” In 2011, teetering on the age of 65, Faithfull interpreted Carole Kings, “Goin’ Back,” a reflective song made most famous by Dusty Springfield. It is also a song of resolution. At 65, maybe this is the time for Marianne Faithfull to sing it. “But thinking young and growing older is no sin / And I can play the game of life to win.”

Artist: Kasey Anderson and the Honkies
Album: Heart of a Dog
Released: February 15, 2011
Label: Red River Records 2011006

Kasey Anderson put out four smart country records before Heart of a Dog. Living a good portion of that time In Bellingham, Washington, Anderson received national attention for his art, drawing comparisons to Steve Earle. It was great praise and it no mistake that he had a similar sound, since his albums were produced by Eric Ambel, a touring member of Steve Earle’s band, the Dukes. But Anderson did not want to be pigeon holed into the alt-country genre, so he put together the band, The Honkies, and made a rock record. (Kind of like Steve Earle’s Copperhead Road.) It’s not uncharted territory for Anderson, the new numbers lean more toward “5th Avenue Queen” from Dead Roses and “Wake Me Up” from Reckoning. It’s just that it’s a whole album of it.

Heart of a Dog opens with, “The Wrong Light;” a song built on a fuzzed-out guitar riff, part Neil Young, part Black Sabbath, and a lot of nasty. Dog then slides into “Mercy” which sounds like it could’ve been part of the Stones Sticky Fingers sessions. Nine songs later, it closes with a cover of the English Beat’s “Save It For Later.” Anderson’s making a point that there’s more in his arsenal. It’s also parallels his departure from Bellingham and a return home to Portland, Oregon, following theme of rebirth.

Although there are some good songs and a great one – that being “Mercy” – Anderson’s too late to arrive. You want to be the artist that is getting compared to, for example, the Raspberries sounded like Paul McCartney (when McCartney had a good day) or any rock band with the Rickenbacher jangle sounded like the Byrds. And Kasey Anderson still sounds like Steve Earle. But, that can be transcended, Tom Petty drew a lot of Byrds comparisons but he is now a rock and roll benchmark.

There are enough hints that Anderson can take the next step. Lyrically, his songs are interesting, a bit wordy at times, but the imagery is good. He’s not as vague as the lyrics of “Save It For Later” nor is he as surreal as Dylan. But his clever “Kasey Anderson’s Dream” is definitely a nod to Bob. The title itself is a hint the structure is very much like “Highway 61 Revisited.” The rhythm section sounds like it was found in a junkyard and provides a rickety foundation for the imagery. It works. It’s good. The influence is there but it isn’t so apparent and that’s the step toward transcending the comparisons.

“Revisionist History Blues” is an apocalyptic talking blues number that has you believing in Anderson’s rock and roll. This works better than the ballads, “My Blues, My Love” and “For Anyone.” These would work better in his alt-country setting. But there’s no reason why Anderson can’t make an album that rocks and twangs. That may just be his niche.

Artist: Nick Lowe
Title: The Old Magic
Label: Yep Roc 2248
Released: September 13, 2011

“Because with time, care, cash, peace, love and understanding, it could be as good as new,” sings Nick on “House For Sale,” a song with autobiographical facts leading to what was viewed as Lowe’s comeback. In 1992, the soundtrack to the Whitney Houston / Kevin Costner film, The Bodyguard was released. On the album Curtis Stigers recorded a version of “What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love & Understanding.” The soundtrack spent twenty weeks at number one and sold over fifteen million copies. Mr. Lowe hit paydirt. It’s no mistake that the word ‘cash’ precedes ‘peace, love and understanding.’

1994 the comeback started with the release of The Impossible Bird. 17 years later with the albums Dig My Mood, The Convincer, Untouched Takeaway (live), and At My Age in his canon, Lowe releases, The Old Magic. “I’m sixty-one years old now, Lord I never thought I’d see thirty,” claims Lowe on “Checkout Time;” a song reflecting on mortality, which is appropriate for anyone at sixty-one.

From the pub rock scene with Brinsley Schwarz to the house producer at Stiff Records to Berry-based roots rock with Rockpile, to the supergroup, Little Village, Nick has successfully shifted from one phase of his career to the next. From 1998’s Dig My Mood to his current release, we find Lowe gracefully becoming Matt Monro recording at Bradley’s Barn but without strings.

Nick’s compositions “I Read A lot” would suit k.d. lang, “’Til the Real Thing Comes Along” would melt in the mouth of Raul Malo, and “Checkout Time” sounds like it was written for Buck Owens. Lowe also goes onto cover Tom T. Hall’s “Shame on the Rain” and you can hear Hall’s influence in Lowe’s “You Don’t Know Me At All.”

“Sensitive Man,” comes complete with a Floyd Cramer piano chop (compliments of Geraint Watkins) and some slight Mariachi horns and marimbas during the instrumental break. This would have been a hit in 1964 with the forty-year olds, but Nick’s wit would’ve fluttered over their heads.

“Restless Feeling, the opening track on side two of the album, starts with a rather Esquivalian chorus and then dances along to a Brazilian vibe, appropriate for the June Taylor Dancers. “Somebody Cares For Me” moves to a similar rhythm of Nick’s “Half A Boy and Half A Man.” And that’s about as speedy as it gets because I think this LP is built for comfort.

If you pick up the vinyl version, it’s pressed at 45 rpms with wide grooves and it sounds spectacular. Yep Roc should’ve leased the RCA Living Stereo logo for this release.

Artist: SuperHeavy
Title: SuperHeavy
Label: Universal Republic B0016107
Released: September 20, 2011

They remind us immediately in the name of the band and the title of the album that this is a supergroup. This super team of Damian Marley, A.R.Rahman, David Stewart, Joss Stone and Superman himself, Mick Jagger, want to collectively blow our minds with a multi-cultural music experience. But what it turns out to be is an excursion into the global economy in an attempt to line their pockets with as many foreign currencies as possible. It’s imperialistic rock and it sounds forced and unnatural.

The opening track, surprisingly titled, “SuperHeavy,” is toasting and boasting over an amalgam of world beat rhythms. Damian Marley is the only member sounding like he’s at home here. Meanwhile, A.R. Rahman noodles through a verse, at her best, Joss Stone sounds like a coked-up Gloria Jones and Mick leaves the planet altogether and channels Jar-Jar Binks. The song promotes the band’s self but lacks a genuine feeling of political awareness like the Clash purveyed in “This Is Radio Clash.” And it does not capture their significance to world culture like “Hey, Hey We’re the Monkees” did.

SuperHeavy tried to make a record that would incorporate so much, reach so many, but it collapses on itself like Wall Street and the Greek economy. The single, “Miracle Worker,” has a nice hook, the harmonies during the chorus are pleasant, but Jagger vomits all over the song when he tries to snarl his way through the lyrics. Every supergroup has its superstar that is more superior to his superiorettes, and Mick wants to be the king of the world but he’s just plain irritating, he’s like the John McCain of rock.

“Energy” is a bad version of “You Got Me Rocking” meets “Undercover of the Night.” After hearing the last track on side A, “One Day One Night” I was really hoping that Marley would make an album with Sly & Robbie, Joss would get together again with Betty Wright, Rahman would go back to the Indian film industry, Stewart would write some rock songs for Annie Lennox and the Stones would not take their rumored final tour.

And then I came to the realization that there was still a B-side to the record. I really had trouble finding the want to turn the platter over. The first three tracks settled into a nice groove, but still not enough to save the record. I found myself liking “Rock Me Gently” (no, not the Andy Kim song…that one’s better) but I literally dozed off somewhere during its six-minutes of vinyl existence. That doesn’t say a lot for a record when you fall asleep during your favorite song.

They must have realized that too because the following track, “I Can’t Take It No More” starts off with Joss dropping the F-bomb with Mick finally sounding like Mick in this loud soul-rocker. But it’s not that good of a song, and it was so aptly titled, I did a needle drop on the two remaining tracks because I couldn’t take it no more.

Artist: Richard “Groove” Holmes
Title: Book of the Blues (Vol. 1)
Label: Warner Brothers WB1553
Release Date: 1964
Condition: Very Good +

The B-3 is funky. “Groove” Holmes is funky. Warner Brothers records circa 1964 was not funky.

Book of the Blues Vol. 1 is an odd piece. It’s a collection of blues standards – “See See Rider,” “I’d Rather Drink Muddy Water,” “How Long Blues,” “Roll ‘Em Pete, et al. – that sounds tapped between eras. Holmes tries to get funky, but the big band arrangements by Onzy Matthews never seem to mesh with Holmes and his generation soul jazz listeners.

It’s not to say that Onzy can’t swing. We know he can. He was an Ellington acolyte, wrote some great arrangements for Lou Rawls in the sixties, most notably, “Tobacco Road,” and arranged for Esther Phillips and Roy Ayers. Plus, on this Warner Brothers’ release, he appeared “Courtesy of Capitol Records,” thus he was sought out to accompany Mr. Holmes’ first record for the label.

On the original inner sleeve of the album, Warner Brothers advertisers its current hit albums including The Trapp Family Singers, The Outriggers Playing Golden Hits of Hawaii, Bonnie Prudden’s instructional album, Fitness for Baby & You, and the famous, Sidney Poitier Meets Plato. Again, Warner Brothers was not funky. But they attempted to be by matching Holmes and Matthews. But it just didn’t sound contemporary.

Count Basie made some hip records with his big band in the 60’s because he could swing. Unfortunately some of Onzy Matthews arrangements swing more like the “Tonight Show Band” with Tommy Newsome, more than they do Count Basie. On this offering Matthews had different kind of swing that twisted more than it strutted. And it didn’t work well with the blues, nor did it jive with Holmes’ B-3.

Fortunately, the rhythm section is tight and when the big band doesn’t come blaring through, the LP is listenable, mainly for Groove’s chops. But conceptually, this combo of big band, blues and B-3, backfires. In 1965 one year after this release, Holmes would record Soul Message for Prestige. It would contain his signature tune, “Misty” and Holmes would ride that groove until his death.

There are better Groove Holmes LPs than Book of the Blues Vol. 1, and Warner Brothers Records must have thought so too, because there was never a Volume 2.