Chelsea: No Escape

Chelsea: No Escape

1980

IRS Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. No Escape  2. Urban Kids  3. No Flowers For Him  4. Trouble Is The Day  5. Right To Work  6. Look At The Outside  7. What Would You Do  8. No One's Coming Outside  9. The Loner  10. Don't Get Me Wrong  11. Decide  12. Come On



 This album falls into the "Where Have You Been All My Life" category...It's exactly what I want to hear day and night...They were one of those bands that I'd always heard about but never actually listened to...Y'see, this band is where 3/4ths of Generation X (one of my faves) originated from, and for whatever reason I put them into the category of "early inconsequential band that spun off into a truly great band" (see the 101-ers for a 70's example or Slapstick for a 90's example)...But after I laid my ears on "No Escape" I possibly enjoy this...gulp...more than any Generation X album...

The first time I put this on I was bowled over at how great every single track was..."My God," I thought, "Any one of these tracks could be a hit single!" It turns out there was a pretty good explanation for that. This was just a collection of singles. The original UK release had a title ("Alternative Hits") that made this more clear, but since US audiences had no clue who Chelsea were anyway, this was just packaged as a regular album entitled "No Escape"...

And boy, if you have any taste whatsoever for 70's UK punk you need to check this out immediately...As delicate it as it is smashing, it reminds me of an especially arena-ready '77-style punk band...I guess the best way I can put it, is if you've ever wished the Clash released another album along the lines of "Give "em Enough Rope," then this album just might fill that void: Big singalong choruses, guitars that chug, slash and shimmy, melodies that stay stuck in your head for days on end...

 I'm still kicking myself for missing out on songs like "No Flowers For Him" "Don't Get Me Wrong" and "Trouble Is The Day" which I'm now listing among the all-time great punk tracks...And "Come On" is punk bubblegum worthy of the Ramones or the Vibrators. I've always considered Gen X to be critically overlooked, but if that's the case then the lack of accolades tossed at Chelsea is a downright crime against all that's decent and holy! Good God, man! If you see this in a used record bin, buy it fast! Before some other dude in a mohawk picks it up!

Waitsec! It's Friday! And not only Friday but it's the Friday before a three day weekend! Which means we actually get two Fridays! Or two Saturdays...Or two Sundays depending on how you want to look at it...Anyway you slice it, we get an extra night of drinking mucho beers and spinning many records and that's always cause for celebration! Let's cut all the small talk and get things started! 

Go grab a coldy and we'll listen to "Come On" by Chelsea...Happy Friday Number 1 everybody! Enjoy....

The Chieftains:4/7

The Chieftains:4

1973

Claddagh Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Drowsy Maggie  2. Morgan Magan  3. The Tip of the Whistle  4. Bucks of Oranmore  5. The Battle Of Aughrim  6. The Morning Dew  7. Carrickfergus (or Do Bhi Bean Uasal)  8. Sláinte Bhreagh Hiulit  9. Cherish The Ladies  10. Lord Mayo  11. Mná na hÉireann (Women of Ireland)  12. O'Keefe's Slide /An Suisin Ban (The white blanket) / The Star Above The Garter / The Weaver's Slide


Damn, from Ray Charles to the Chieftains... I'm getting in deep over my head this time...I know absolutely nothing about traditional Irish music...I don't know a jig from a reel...It's all soap-cutting music to me...

		Honestly, it had never really crossed my mind to listen to instrumental Irish folk music before...I'd always kind of associated it with yuppies who claimed to be 1/16th Irish, armed with CD wallets full of Yanni and the sounds of the tropical rainforest...But here I am, sober as a ghost, listening to the Chieftains... When the band keep things rolling at a brisk clip, on songs like "Drowsy Maggie" and "The Bucks of Oranmore," I can't  help but get sucked into the energy...Fast, fresh, full of fascinating moving parts...And "The Battle of Aughrim" is a prog epic to my ears (however cloth-y those ears may be)...To be honest, they lose me a bit on the slower, harp-driven stuff...I'm sorry, I'm just not made for this type of thing...I have the same problem with a lot of classical music, where the sound just seems to drop out of existence for long stretches of time...But if you're into the whole "waking up in a green, green glen, surrounded by swirling mists and dewy lichen" mental imagery, then you'll probably enjoy the quieter moments of the album... Oh yea, see the guy in the middle with whistle? His name is Paddy Moloney...How is that for Irish cred? The best part of the album though is all the miscellaneous stuff that someone left inside this particular used copy: A review from a 1976 issue of Time magazine. You should probably read this instead of my Chieftains write-up..They appear to know what they're talking about...I'm pretty much just going to write about leprechauns from here on out... The other, non-Chieftains-related side of the Time magazine page, featuring drawings depicting sleeping tigers, a giant baby and an intangible jester walking through an electric fence or something...\ Here's a program for a Chieftains performance at the Ahmanson Theatre in beautiful downtown...Somewhere...I don't know where this place is... Here's page 2 of the program...With a big, long bio of the band... Here's some more large blocks of text... Ahh, I'm sick of scanning in stuff...Let's listen to some music...Here's   "Drowsy Maggie" by the Chieftains... The Chieftains: 7 1977 Claddagh Records Format I Own it on: Vinyl Track Listing: 1. Away We Go Again  2. Dochas  3. Hedigan's Fancy  4. John O'Connor And The Ode To Whiskey  5. Friel's Kitche  6. No. 6 The Coombe  7. O'Sullivan's March  8. The Ace And The Deuce of Pipering  9. The Fairies' Lamentation And Dance  10. Oh! The Breeches Full of Stitches Damn, I can't resist this album cover! Lookit! Chock FULL of Leprechauns!!  And  since "Darby O' Gill & the Little People" is one of my favorite movies, so this was a no-brainer... ' To keep up with the changing musical climate, the Chieftains turn to a disco/punk hybrid"...All slashing guitars and four-on-the-floor hot-tub thump...Nah, I'm just jivin' ya..."7" sounds the same as "4" to me, which probably isn't too surprising considering the Chieftains adhere strictly to traditional music...They were already accomplished musicians, and the music is based on folk songs that have been around for centuries anyway, so outside of massive line-up changes and updates to recording technologies, not much can change... ...and the cover doesn't lie. This is some serious Leprechaun music...Tin whistles, thumpy hand drums, fiddlin' fiddles...Think of "Irish Music" and this is exactly what you're imagining...Oh yea...How did I hear about these guys?  Why, from a Saturday Night Live Performance that came out right around the same time "7" was released....I remember them sitting on a bales of hay just a-jiggin' away... I remember the guy playing the drum thingy had big guns and the guy in the tie on the far right was the most accountant-y guy I had ever seen in a band (second only to the gentleman in the suit and tie next to the drummer)...I think more than anything it was that guy who intrigued me so much...It was just a bunch of middle-age guys rockin' out (in their own way)...It had such a sense of fun and the guys were so ridiculously skilled that you had to love it.. Here's to middle-aged dudes and tin whistles and fiddle-dee-dee...Let's check out "Away We Go Again" by the Chieftains...Enjoy...

Ray Charles: Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music

Ray Charles: Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music

1962

ABC/Paramount Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Bye Bye Love  2. You Don't Know Me  3. Half as Much  4. I Love You So Much It Hurts  5. Just a Little Lovin' (Will Go a Long Way)  6. Born to Lose  7. Worried Mind  8. It Makes No Difference Now  9. You Win Again  10. Careless Love  11. I Can't Stop Loving You   12. Hey, Good Lookin'           

Again, I'm a bit out of my element here...I'm not really knowledgeable about Ray Charles, so I decided to look up a little bit of backstory on this album...Maybe give myself a bit of context before I discussed it...See, I bought this album for two reasons: 1. I wondered what Ray Charles playing country music would sound like... 2. The cover was so red that I had to own it...It was the only album I had ever seen that was redder than Weezer's red album... It turns out this is one of those situations where context completely changed my perception of an album....Here's my context-free opinion...This is me coming home after a trip to the record store, a 30-pack of Bud Light in one hand, an armful of Damned albums, Discharge singles and a copy of "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music" in the other...I crack a beer, toss the Ray Charles on the turntable and think, "This is country music?!"    Where were the songs about Skoal imprints in yer tight-fittin' jeans? Where were the red solo cups?  ...or the mud on the tires? Where was the "Love it or Leave It" jingoism?! The sister fuckin'?!? The high illiteracy rates?  And isn't "Bye Bye Love" a rock n' roll song?! All I heard was big band/ dinner club music and Disney Soundtrack ballads...I did enjoy it in a dry martini/Sunday hor d'oeuvres  kind of way...Big, fat pillow music with pristine production...But there was no way around it. I considered this Grandpa music...It had never crossed my mind that this would have been a radical, controversial, downright groundbreaking album at the time... Cos guess what? Our Grandparents were in the middle of some shit! Apparently as recently as the 1960's the fact that a black man would cover an album of "white" music was a shocking proposition. "Oh, my! Ray Charles is singing a syrupy version of " I Love You So Much It Hurts "! What's this world coming to?! I think I'm going to faint?!" This seemingly benign collection of fluffy orchestral pop suddenly became an unwitting political statement and in this light "Worried Mind" is suddenly took on a whole new meaning.... But it turns out this was something that both black and white ears could both agree on. Folks of all colors united and sent this record to the top of the charts, helping to break down some of the racial barriers built into the heavily segregated music biz of the 1960's...And guess what? Ray didn't end up destroying the C&W genre...He ended up re popularizing it...So stick them corn-squeezin's in yer jug and drank 'em... So yea...There's a couple different ways to hear this...If you want to view it as an important historical document, that works...If you want to listen to this as a relaxing album of cool, chilled out music, that works too..Although my guess is that the only people who might not get this would be country fans, since it doesn't especially resemble any country music I've ever heard...No steel guitars, no banjos, no twang... But if you're interested in hearing Ray Charles in a more plush, sophisticated surroundings you'll probably dig this... Here's "Worried Mind" by Ray Charles...Have a great Friday Night everyone!

Ray Charles: What'd I Say?

Ray Charles: What'd I Say?

1959

Atlantic Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. What'd I Say? (Parts 1 & 2)  2. Jumpin' in the Mornin  3. You Be My Baby  4. Tell Me How Do You Feel  5. What Kind of Man Are You  6. Rockhouse (Parts 1 & 2)  7. Roll with My Baby  8. Tell All the World About You  9. My Bonnie  10. That's Enough


I probably have no business even talking about a Ray Charles album since I know next to nothing about him,but I figured it would be something different to talk about than the usual punk, heavy metal and Captain Beefheart albums...I actually bought this for my wife who was with at me at the record store that day and said she wanted it...I thought the cover was cool as hell, so we threw it on the pile...

Now here's everything I know about Ray Charles:



1. I know he did those "Diet Pepsi Uh Huh, Uh Huh" commercials that were always on TV when I was growing up...

 2. I know he drove a bus in the cinematic masterpiece "Spy Hard"...

3. I know there's nothing wrong with the action on the piano...

 4. I know about the thick, rich Jamocha shake..."Oh, it looks good! At least, I think it looks good (Hardy har har)"....

5. I know I heard the following exchange between my two bosses (who were an elderly married couple) at the pizza place I used to work at circa 1999-2001:

 Carol (to her daughter) I got Lee and I tickets to go see Ray Charles in concert next week...

 Lee: (sticks his toungue out) Bleh! There's something about that guy that just doesn't turn me on...

Boss' Daughter: It doesn't sound like Dad wants to go...

Carol: Oh, yes he does...

Boss' Daughter: He just said he doesn't like Ray Charles...

Carol: Oh, he doesn't know what he likes! That's why I always have to tell him!

 6. I know about that old SNL Beethoven sketch...

7. I know my Mom has a copy of the Ray Charles Christmas album...And that one of the songs is in the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation movie...


...aaaannnnd that's it...Maybe I should watch more Jamie Foxx movies...What special place (if any) does this "What'd I Say?" album hold in the vast Ray Charles discography? I dunno...What was its cultural importance? Was it considered a hit? A flop? I dunno...Never met a single other person who's ever heard it...All I know is what's in the grooves...

Hey! The title track is the same song that's in the Beethoven sketch! Ray's voice, electric piano and some fairly amazing drums are the big stars here...This is some seriously funky shit considering it predates funk and very likely predates Soul music as I know it...That growly electric piano is one of the greatest sounds in music history...So alive and leering and charming...

Nothing else on the album really comes close to the title track, but how could it? The next track, "Jumpin' in the Mornin'" seems to derail the momentum a bit...A meeting of boogie woogie R&B and big band-ish swing, with the band mixed so far in the background that they come off as a bit of a soft thump, despite Ray's spirited vocal performance.  It isn't until "You Be My Baby"  that I was able to get a proper handle on the album: Lively, rocking R&B with nice clear instrumentation...Sure, that guttural electric piano sound I loved so much is MIA for the remainder of the album and one can't help but wonder how much ballsier some of these songs would sound if they were graced by that deep, gritty sound...But oh well...

Outside of the title track, the only other song  I would consider out-and-out great would be the instrumental "Rockhouse." I guess it's no coincidence that the two album highlights are the only places where the band gets to stretch itself a bit with looser structures which encourages lots of neat-o jamming...Something about Ray's slightly off-time piano playing on this track is so damn tasty that it makes me want to take a big bite out of the record...CRUNCH! (Come to think of it, he also fits in a pretty good piano solo on " Roll with My Baby)...

I'm always kind of surprised at how much I enjoy this record when it's playing...I'm not normally a big fan of this type of thing, but the band keeps things loose and rockin' most of the time, only bogging down briefly on  "What Kind of Man Are You."  But even that one's not terrible...I'd call this a good Saturday Night record...When you're a little buzzed but not on the same debauched level as a raging Friday Night...On Friday night you want loud guitars...Raucous singalongs...But on Saturday Night you're a little cooler...Laid back, head swimming,  but having a good time nonetheless...

Here's "What'd I Say (Parts 1 &2)...Enjoy...

Captain Sensible: A Day in the Life of...

Captain Sensible: A Day in the Life of...

1984

A&M Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Wot  2. Glad It's All Over  3.  It Would Be So Nice  4. Martha The Mouth  5.  It's Hard To Believe I'm Not  6.  There Are More Snakes Than Ladders  7. Brenda Part 1  8. Brenda Part 2  9.  I'm A Spider  10. I Love Her  11.  Happy Talk


Wow!  A greatest hits album that was released two years after his debut single!  Nah, I'm betting most of this stuff wasn't released here and this was A&M's attempt at breaking Captain Sensible in the States, which was probably a fool's errand...I'm glad they made the effort though, otherwise: a.) I wouldn't have this or b.) I would have paid a lot of money for an import...

So here's the breakdown:

From Sensible's first album,  1982's "Women and Captains First" we have "Wot" which I consider the big draw (along with "Happy Talk" which is also included)...File this in the "Early 80's British Punk/New Wave Artists Attempting Rap" section along with the Clash's "Magnificent Seven" and Adam Ant's "Ant Rap." Rap in the ol' Sugarhill Gang/Ripping off Chic style...So dang catchy that you'll drive your friends and family nuts constantly repeating, "'e said Captain! I said WOT!!" Something about the phrase and how he says it makes you want to say it over and over again for all of eternity...I also enjoy "Martha the Mouth" seeing that I'm a sucker for big, loud, flat-sounding 80's drum machines over wistful pop....All you Robyn Hitchcock fans be sure to check out the two "Brenda" tracks that Hitchcock wrote and played guitar on. Distinctively Hitchcock with its surreal lyrics, dreamy chime and boingy bass (provided by a keyboard in this instance). I wonder if this is the same Brenda who drove the iron sledge? Hmmm....

Here's "Wot"...

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Then there are 5 tracks from 1984's "The Power of Love": 

 "I'm Glad it's All Over" commemorates the end of the Falkland war with donky, bell-rockin', children's choir-y Fairlight CMI synth-pop... Every time I hear this song I like the verses more and more and the chorus less and less...Despite the nice sentiment, I have a feeling this was one of those you-had-to-be-there thingys..."I Love Her" is also a bit soft for my tastes...I'm much more comfortable with the up-tempo, boppy, syth-pop stuff like "It's Hard To Believe I'm Not" which makes me so happy for some reason. As does the Pink Floyd cover, although I might be biased because I consider "It Would Be So Nice" one of the Floyd's most underrated tracks...On one hand I'm not surprised he pulls it off  since he displayed a British tea-party psychedelia influence in the Damned, on the other hand I can't believe this distinctly 60's style works so well with an 80's production style. A good song's a good song, I guess...We get another Robyn Hitchock collabo on"I'm a Spider" which is funky-creepy in a way that "Fegmania!" listeners will instantly recognize...I had no idea that Captain Sensible and Robyn Hitchcock had ever worked together, let alone multiple times...Goddamn, Christmas came early this year...

Check out "It Would Be So Nice"...

The track "There's More Snakes Than Ladders" is a standalone single that never appeared on a studio album as far as I know. More gentle keyboard-based pop with Captain Sensible's charming nice-punk vocals...I should probably stress that Damned fans who declare "Damned Damned Damned" and "Machine Gun Ettiquette" to be the band's only worthwhile albums should probably skip "A Day in the Life of..." I'm sure it's too soft, too poppy, too synth-y for your tastes However, if you can handle "Strawberries" this just might work for you even though its a fair bit softer. Don't expect a lot of guitars and you'll be fine...

Let's listen to one more...Here's "It's Hard To Believe I'm Not"...Enjoy...

 

Captain Sensible:Happy Talk

Captain Sensible: Happy Talk

1982

Universal Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Happy Talk  2. It 3. I Can't Stand It (Demo)


I've actually had this single for a very long time...It was just mis-alphabetized so I haven't written about it until now... But pound for pound, this is one of the most out-and-out entertaining singles you can buy...

I bought this waaaaayyyy back in the 90's as a devout fan of Captain Sensible's work in the Damned. I knew something was up as soon as I saw the cover of the Captain on  a beach with a trio of hula girls...Not to mention the title track credited to Rogers & Hammerswine (talk about ungrateful)....

And sure enough, "Happy Talk" is a full-on show-tune. With schmaltzy orchestration, hammy crooning and syrupy sentimentality...We can only guess what  Sensible's motivation was for releasing a Broadway tune as his first single, but it is truly awesome in a head-scratching way...

The B-Side is even better! It starts out with a sarcastic keyboard demonstration ("It")  before segueing into a ripping drum-machine driven pop-punk track...You can easily imagine a fleshed-out version of "I Can't Stand It" being a highlight of an early 80's Damned LP...

Again, I have to marvel at how much  fun he manages to pack into 9 minutes.. What a great use of the 7-inch format.  Even as someone with a serious aversion to show-tunes, I recommend this whole-heartedly to anyone with a healthy sense of humor. 

Here's "I Can't Stand It"...Enjoy...

Candlemass: Nightfall

Candlemass: Nightfall

1987

Peaceville Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Gothic Stone  2. The Well of Souls  3. Codex Gigas  4. At the Gallows End  5. Samarithan  6. Marche Funèbre  7. Dark Are the Veils of Death  8. Mourners Lament  9. Bewitched  10. Black Candles



Alright, here's how it went down...I went to the record store one day and cracked up at some record hanging on the wall by a guy named Thor:

 I found the record so amusing that I told my good buddy Joe about it, who went one step further and watched the video and recommended I watch it too. I did and it was fucking hilarious...Here, check it out if you don't believe me:

This led me down the rabbit-hole of recommended youtube videos all sporting the title of "Worst Music Video Ever" or some variation on that phrase...I sat glued to my computer all night cracking up at horrible video after horrible video until I reached one for a song called "Bewitched" by a band named Candlemass...

 As I watched the video, I did bust a gut laughing at the bargain basement visuals but after it was done playing I couldn't shake the feeling that the song was...I don't know...Fucking awesome...I was a little put off by the vocals but decided to play it once more.  On the second run-through the vocals had grown on me and I knew I had to find a copy of this album...

I went to Zia Records a day or two later and lo and behold, they had a used double-disc CD reissue for sale for just a couple bucks...Done deal...I took it home and put it on the stereo and was greeted by the Casio Symphony Orchestra...

Uh oh...Symphonic metal?  Not what I was looking for, but it turns out there was no reason to be worried...Y'see, this album is broken down like this: 4 brief instrumental interludes and 6 epic-length slabs of doom metal...When the first actual track ("The Well of Souls") actually kicks in I was in sludge heaven...

I recommend this for anyone with a boner for Tony Iommi riffs...Boi-oi-oi-oing! These guys are dedicated Sabbath disciples who are arguably even more committed to thick, towering, immobile, pitch-black riffs than Sabbath themselves...The only warning I can give a Sabbath fan before buying this album is that the vocals might be an acquired taste...Messiah Marcolin delivers every line in a lovably goofball overblown operatic manner that appears to be a bit above his skill-set...So don't expect a precise, nuanced, controlled operatic delivery in the Bruce Dickinson manner...It gives it a great camp quality that those of us wired more for punk than metal might appreciate more than the average metal-head. That said, I can't imagine any respectable metal-head not losing his/her shit over all this heaviness...Track after track of glacial riffs dripping with menacing distortion, only working itself up to a "Children of the Grave" gallop on  sections of "At the Gallows End " and on "Dark Are the Veils of Death" when they managed to whip things up to an Iron Maiden tempo...

Y'see, the key to any good doom metal album lies in the sonics...The tone. Is it thick? Meaty? Does each guitar riff slowly crawl out of your speakers and hang menacingly in the air? Check, check and check...You cannot listen to this quietly. You must turn them shits up. Louder. LOUDER! If the furniture isn't rumbling then you're not getting the full effect...

 The Cd version I have has a bonus disc chock full o' demos, alternate versions and live tracks...There's also an 25-minute interview where you find out these guys are...*gasp*...Swedish! To be honest, there's nothing too Earth-shattering on the second disc...The interview is actually the highlight, showing that the band has a pretty decent sense of humor (which I guess would come in handy after making the "Bewitched"video)...

In a way, I still marvel at how I went from laughing at this to worshiping it in such a short span of time...It really is top-notch if you're into the heavy shit and have an ear for retro-metal...Here, watch the "Bewitched" video below...You'll laugh the first time, guaranteed. Then play it without the visuals.