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Two months ago, I asked a simple question:  What are the 5 best unknown, unheard Rock albums ?

The question generated 100s of comments overnight; anyone looking to discover some great new music is advised to sift thru the laundry list of suggestions.

As promised, I am going to share my list this evening. Before my reveal, a quick note about those qualifiers: In order to make this exercise have some resonance, we had to limit the musical universe:

-Rock/Pop was the standard idiom. Jazz, Classical, World, Folk Hip Hop and Electronica are so diverse and have so many back waters and eddies, huge swaths of it seem unknown (I say that as a serious Jazz fan).

-Modern era (1985 to 2010) We could have gone further back in time, but that ran the risk of simply being unknown due to age, versus true obscurity. (We saw examples of that in comments).

-I kept it to 5 for simple reasons of focus (and crowd control).

There are lots great bands that have relatively unheard great albums, but have a major hit single. These are usually so well known that they didn’t qualify. Examples include the Fountains of Wayne album Welcome Interstate Managers — “Stacy’s Mom” was a huge hit, but the rest of the album was overlooked; so to with Dada‘s debut disc Puzzle — they had a giant single in “Dizz Knee Land,” the rest of the album was just as strong, but overlooked. I had a hard time omitting a few Reggae discs, like One Tree or Yell Fire!. Jazz albums that could qualify as Pop are fine — think Jamie Cullum‘s breakout album Twentysomething, but it was too popular to not qualify.

Indeed, figuring out was too popular or too unknown was the biggest challenge. Few people ever heard of my first choice, but the last disc on the list is very well known — it just sold poorly and was heard even less.

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• Roman Candle:  Says Pop (2002)

In 2005, I wrote: Roman Candle’s debut is a joyful assortment of finely crafted pop tunes. If FM Radio didn’t suck, this is the sort of music you would be hearing on it right now. Finely crafted lyrics mated to delightful melodies delivered by a tight power pop five-some in a surprisingly slick production.

Like nearly all the discs on this list, this one is really good from start to finish.

Why didn’t you ever hear of these guys? Roman Candle hails from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and signed with an independent label. No payola, no Clearchannel — and no radio play.

Note: This was released under a new label as “The Wee Hours Review” but its mostly the same disc.

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• The Push Stars After the Party

How to describe the well crafted, heartfelt songs on this album? Start with infectious melodies, slide reflective lyrics over that, mix in a little effervescent joy. The tunes range from melancholy ballads to joyous rock to pop perfection.

The band has 3 outstanding albums, but After the Party is my absolute favorite. I cannot figure out why the song “Drunk Is Better Than Dead” was not a huge radio smash (but as noted earlier, radio sucks).

The other two favorites are meet me at the fair and Opening Time.

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• PreFab Sprout Two Wheels Good

This is a spectacular album, released as Steve McQueen in the UK, where it is well known. In the US, this Thomas Dolby-produced album is mostly unknown, hardly heard. And that is a shame, as it is a tour de force of song writing chops, clever lyrics, and brilliant music.

I don’t even know where to begin describing this. Paddy McAloon’s songwriting has been compared to Brian Wilson, and justly so. Each heart rending song of love and loss is harrowing, gorgeous, lovely. The lyrics are sly, full of wry irony. They grab you, and refuse to let go.

On the song Appetite:

Here she is with two small problems
And the best part of the blame
Wishing she could call him heartache
But it’s not a boy’s name

On Horsin’ Around, a song about unfaithfulness:

It’s me again; Your worthless friend (or foe)
I somehow let that lovely creature down
Horsin’ around, horsin’ around
Some things we check and double check (and lose)
I guess I let that little vow get lost
Forgettin’ the cost, forgettin’ the cost

On the song He’ll Have To Go, these lyrics always stood out:

Put your sweet lips a little closer to the phone
Let’s pretend that we’re together all alone
I’ll tell the man to turn the jukebox way down low
And you can tell your friend there with you
He’ll have to go (go, go go)

Every song is a brilliant combination of musical arrangement, melody, and lyrical genius. I cannot listen to this disc without thinking about loves lost in college, grad school and beyond.

Note: Faron, The opening song, is atypical of the rest of the disc. I always start with the 2nd song, Bonnie, and play it straight through, ending with Faron.

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• The Philosopher Kings The Philosopher Kings

The Philosopher Kings mix soulful tunes with rock, jazz and R&B. Gerald Eaton’s distinctive vocals fit the original lyrics/Some people have called this disc urban jazz, I prefer to think of  as an amalgam of pop, rock, soul, fink, layered with jazz instrumentation. Call it smoky vocal jazz with a rock sensibility.

Its wildly original, and every song on the album packs a punch.

The album earned the group a Juno Award nomination for Best R&B/Soul Recording of the Year.

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• Freedy Johnston This Perfect World: Johnston’s gravelly soprano voice is perfectly suited to his bittersweet lyrics of heartbreak and loneliness. The music belies the lyrical angst, with bouncy chords and jangling guitars serving as the backdrop for exquisite melodies.

Johnston is known for the craftsmanship of his songs, and has been described as a “songwriter’s songwriter; In 1994, Rolling Stone named him “songwriter of the year”. A reviewer “Marries perfectly realized power-pop sensibility to skilled, literary writing chops” — and I see nothing to disagree with there.

This Album never broke into the Billboard charts, and the song Bad Reputation was a minor hit. Why this wasn’t a monster is beyond me: Every song is a perfectly crafted, radio friendly, little story.

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• The Magic Numbers The Magic Numbers

I thought the band’s debut disc, The Magic Numbers, was the best new rock and roll release of 2005. I was astonished to learn the CD sold a mere 44,000 copies in the US. That’s astonishing to me, considering what a great CD it is.

The band is an amalgam of all sorts of oddities, but
the entire assemblage works surprisingly well. Two pairs of brother/sister teams (from Trinidad/New York/London), best described as “an unfashionable blend of soft country pop with Fifties and Sixties inflections.”

What I liked about it was the strong mix of rock and roll, summery guitars, laid over skiffle and country pop structures. It is spare and at the same time complex, flavored with an inflection of a1960s guitar band. Somehow, it all sounds very modern, via classic rock instruments — simply guitar bass drums — no synth. The songs are jangly, melodic and hook laden; the writing is outstanding. Lyrics and vocals reveal a tender vulnerability. I found the album very addictive — with each listen, you want to hear more . . .

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OK, so my top 5 slipped to 6 –  but I couldn’t leave out the last disc.

Runners Up after the jump . . .

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This song has been stuck in my head for weeks now:

“(Do The) Push and Pull (Part 1)” is a 1970 single by Rufus Thomas. This was the only number-one song for Thomas — Billboard Best Selling Soul Singles chart for two weeks in February 1971 — who hit the R&B chart in 1953.

Thomas also found some success with the Do The Funky Chicken, and Walking The Dog.

I previously mentioned the Stax 50th Anniversary Celebration back in 2007.

Recently, Stax came out with a new album, Stax Number Ones (which Amazon sells for $7.97). I was surprised that this Rufus Thomas single was not in the prior Stax collection. Its a perfect groove for getting ready to go out on a rainy Friday night:

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(Do the) Push and Pull (Part 1) Rufus Thomas, Stax Number Ones

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Lyrics, live performance, and full video after the jump . . .

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I had an interesting discussion with a music buddy about some of the least popular, best discs of the past few decades.

The challenge: Name 5 outstanding Rock and Roll albums that 90% of the music buying/downloading public are unfamiliar with.

3 rules:

1. Rock and Roll (including Pop)!  No jazz, classical or world music

2. Obscure: Not a big seller, relatively unknown, not a top 40 song or a top 100 Album;

3. Outstanding album: The disc must be great, listenable from start to finish, cohesive, with one good song after another and a handful of great ones.

Defining what obscure is was also a challenge — a popular UK album unknown in the US counts, but vice-versa didn’t.

We set an arbitrary cut off date of 25 years — there is simply too many great albums from the 1960s and 70s, and those unknowns are more a function of age than obscurity (UPDATE: The older mega-hits “discovered” in comments confirms this). Anything released after 1985 is fair game. And we went with Rock, because there are simply too many obscure Jazz recordings out there.

Cutting it down to just 5 was difficult, but gave the exercise some focus. I will publish my list next Friday.

What are your 5 favorite unknown CDs?

I mentioned the 40th anniversary of the  remastered version of Exile on Main Street a few weeks ago.

Lately, I have been listening to an awesome selection of Rolling Stone Cover albums. Having heard these songs over the course of 4 decades, a little freshening up can go a long way. These 4 albums present the songs you know oh-so-well in a fresh new way.

• Paint It Blue: Songs Of The Rolling Stones: Given how freely the Stones borrowed from American blues greats, it only seems fair that these same blues players cover the Stone’s best known tunes. Somewhere between musically incestuous and ironically absurd, the covers by the bluesman (who influenced the originals) works stunningly well.

Luther Allison practically makes You Can’t Always Get What You Want his own (flavored with some of Lou Reed’s doo do do dos); Larry McCray gets funky on Midnight Rambler. Derek Trucks’ slide guitar burns thru Tumblin’ Dice; Junior Wells turns (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction into churning swamp funk.

Turnabout sure is fair play!

Favorite cut: Taj Mahal’s Honky Tonk Women

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• All Wood and Stones: Imagine what the Rolling Stones would have sounded like if Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were gnarly California dudes, with acoustic guitars ala CSNY.

That was the totally original idea behind James Lee Stanley and John Batdorf recording — take 11 Rolling Stones classics and turned them into something the likes of which you have never heard before. They wildly succeeded.

Enchanting acoustic guitars, joyous vocal harmonies, surprisingly inspired arrangements completely rewrite classic Stones.

Favorite cut: (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

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• Bossa Nova:  I love these wacky, bizarre, all female covers of the Stones’ catalog. The mix of Bossa Nova, Reggae, electronica, and — dare I say it — almost Muzak — combine to create a truly unique disc.

Its an odditiy — fun, weird, amusing, but there is an indefatigable sincerity that permeates all of these covers. Sure, the breathy female vocals are pretty thin, but the amusement factor more than make up for that.

It all somehow works.

I admit, you must have a musical sense of humor to enjoy these (think Barenaked Ladies). I especially like mixing some of these covers into a playlist, and watching people do double takes, as they try to make sense of the melody they recognize, with the arrangements.

Favorite cut: Beast Of Burden and since this is a double disc, I am adding: Fool To Cry

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• Stripped:  OK, its not quite a cover album. But the Stones going not-quite unplugged presents their own catalogue in the same spirit of fresh, new takes on old favorites. Its not quite acoustic, but its about as close as the boys ever come.

Rather than use do the mega-hits — Honky Tonk Women, Satisfaction, Sympathy for the Devil, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, etc. Stripped is filled with the unjustly neglected Stones B-Sides: Wild Horses, Street Fighting Man, Not Fade Away, Shine A Light, Let It Bleed, Angie, etc. The disc contains terrific versions of many of their lesser known hits, stripped of excess production.

Favorite cut: Like A Rolling Stone

Don Was has been the Rolling Stones record producer since Voodoo Lounge in 1994. He discusses the remastered version of Exile on Main Street Remastered version.

NPR:

“When Exile on Main Street was first released nearly 40 years ago, few expected it to gain recognition as a masterpiece. Though the album was a commercial success, a number of critics thought it was too ragged. Some panned it completely. But it’s since become one of the most influential and adored rock albums of all time, thanks to its raw sound and free-spirited exploration of different styles, from country and blues to soul and gospel.

This week, Universal Records is releasing a remastered version of Exile on Main Street that includes a bonus disc of alternate versions of select songs, as well as previously unreleased tracks. The Rolling Stones brought on producer Don Was to scour the old Exile master recordings for lost gems. Some of the rediscovered songs needed mixing, while others needed entirely new lyrics and vocal tracks. On this edition of All Songs Considered, Was talks about how he picked the songs, how they were produced and the lasting impact of the now-legendary album.”

If Audio below does not load, go here.

Radio Interview: ‘Exile On Main Street’

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Sources:
Don Was Revisits ‘Exile On Main Street’
NPR, A May 16, 2010
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126832322

NPR Don Was Interview
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=126832322&m=126832321

Exile on Main Street Deluxe Edition [Extra Tracks]

Here’s something I haven’t been able to say for 40 years –

“I’m really looking forward to checking out the new Jimi Hendrix album.”

As it turns out . . . come March 1, there will be a new Hendrix disc of some unreleased material — Valleys Of Neptune.

For you young ‘uns out there who might not be familiar with Jimi — he was the genius guitar player who combined R&B, psychedelia distortion/feedback-laden electric leads. You can still hear his influence in music today.

Hendrix released but 3 albums during his short lifetime: Are You Experienced (1967) is probably the greatest debut rock albums of all time (Rolling Stone ranked it #15 on their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time). The next disc was Axis: Bold as Love (1967) and Electric Ladyland (1968).

He was 27 when he died in London on September 18, 1970.

Valleys Of Neptune track by track listing (with descriptions) after the jump . . .

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UPDATE:

Wow, terrific comments. I put the full run of reader suggested Hendrix videos here.

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Amazon is running an excellent selection of $5 albums in DRM free MP3s , (if you like that sort of thing).

I prefer my music mostly in the form of cold shiny discs. However, Amazon selected over 800 albums, about 50 per genre across rock, jazz, country, new age, 2009 discs you misses, etc. at the bargain (legal) price of $5 bucks per.

These 2 dozen caught my eye:

Jazz:

• John Coltrane Blue Trane

• A Boy Named Charlie Brown  by Vince Guaraldi Trio

• Classic Sinatra – His Great Performances 1953-1960  by Frank Sinatra

• Monk

• John Coltrane And Johnny Hartman

More after the jump .  . .

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Over the course of seeing concerts the past 3+ decades, I have had the good fortune to attend shows that were recorded and later distributed on CD/DVD a handful of times.

Up until recently, the most memorable was Aimee Mann’s Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse.

But this summer, I was lucky enough to attend Paul McCartney at Citi Field (as well as experience the Spontaneous Crowd Chorus).

I went to the Friday night show straight from work. The show was terrific, and I was thrilled to see it release as a reasonable priced set:  Paul McCartney: Good Evening New York City is 2 CDs + 1 DVD for $14.

As a huge Beatles fan, I avoided seeing earlier McCartney shows as they were mostly solo/Wings material. As you can see from the tour de force set list, it is  heavily weighted with Beatles tunes. From the opener Drive My Car, followed by Jet, you can see a lot of thought went into the list.  If there is any weakness, it is a run of 4 non Beatle tunes wedged between Blackbird and Eleanor Rigby. The rest of the list is outstanding.

The show itself was terrific — a full two and half hours — McCartney was in great voice. The songs surprised in their freshness, the stage presentation was classic old school, but it worked really well. McCartney is the consumate performer, and he showed that at age 67 (WTF!) he can still rock with the best of them.

If I have any complaints about the DVD, it is the director never seems to let the camera linger anywhere for more than a few seconds. Sometimes less cutting, and more continued footage is more.

For Beatles fans, or those whose kids want to get to know the band, this is a great place to start.

I will be incommunicado today, winging my way back from Berlin for acht und halben stunden (8 1/2 hours).  I wrote this back in 2005, but never published it widely.

Enjoy:

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What sort of crap do you have lurking hidden on your iPod?

That’s the question I stumbled across from my old essays & effluvia blog. It was based on an article from The Arizona Republic, which asked:

“Those saccharine pop tunes and schmaltzy ballads cloaked from friends? There’s no excuse anymore. No blaming it on a CD that had just one song you liked. No claiming it belonged to your wife, husband or friend.You selected each and every tune. Like it or not, these are your greatest hits.

Now, let the melodic mocking commence.”

Those of you who have read me for a while know my musical tastes are wide-ranging, sharp, and ahead of the curve. (New visitors to TBP should check out our annual “best ofs” from the past few years).

But saccharine pop tunes and schmaltzy ballads hidden on the iPod?

Guilty as charged.

Not only do I have a slew of really embarrassing guilty pleasures on my pod, but they have actually found their way on to various mixes I’ve made. That means, no excuses.

How about you? What embarrassing ditties would your close friends be aghast about — if they knew? Since our big interactive musical discussion — Greatest American R&R Band — was so much fun, let’s take another swipe at it:

What are the most horrendous, embarrassing, guilty pleasures on your iPod?

I’ll start the HD spinning with my hidden collection of pathetic guilty pleasures (‘tho music snob that I am, I foolishly believe my guilty pleasures are superior to most people’s — indefensible as that position might be).

These lists go from least (10) to most (1) embarrassing.

Generally embarrassing pop orotherwise awful commercial song:

10. Semi-Charmed Kinda of Life, Third Eye Blind
9. Undone – The Sweater Song, Weezer
8. Horndog, Overseer
7. Hey Leonardo (She Likes Me for Me), Blessid Union Of Souls
6. I Touch Myself, Divinyls
5. Closing Time, Semisonic
4. Complicated, Avril Lavigne
3. (I Hate) Everything About You, Ugly Kid Joe
2. She Hates Me, Puddle of Mudd
1. Mmmm Bop, Hanson

These are the utterly embarrassing songs on my “Gym Mix” :

10. I’m Just a Girl, No Doubt
9. Groove Is In The Heart, Deee-Lite
8. Take It Off, The Donnas
7. Fantastic Voyage, Coolio
6. Murder On The Dance floor, Sophie Ellis Bextor
5. Good Vibrations, Marky Mark
4. Steal My Sunshine, Len
3. That Don’t Impress Me Much, Shania Twain
2. I Just Want to Make Love to You, Foghat
1. Rico Suave, Gerardo

And lastly, a mix I named “Bad radio from my Youth” — and it is utterly ghastly:

10. Bad Time (for Being in Love), Grand Funk Railroad
9. Keep On Loving You, REO Speedwagon
8. Day After Day, Badfinger
7. Without you, Badfinger

A two way tie of simply awful for 3rd place:

6. (Shake, Shake, Shake) Your Booty, K.C. & The Sunshine Band
5. Keep It Comin’ Love, K.C. & The Sunshine Band
(I’ve actually grown to like some other KC stuff, but these 2 — shudder — sheesh!)

A three way tie totally lacking any redeeming qualities for 2nd place:

4. Cover of the Rolling Stone, Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show
3. When You’re in Love (with a Beautiful Woman), Dr. Hook
2. Sylvia’s Mother, Dr. Hook

Last, and actually least, a song beyond bad:

1. Coconut, Harry Nilsson

There, I’ve outed myself and my misspent youth . . .

There are some interesting comments on this issue over at kottke, which is where I originally saw the pointer for this. Since then, there have been over 100 entries of guilty iPod pleasures, including what must be the playlist from Hell.

Check it out . . .

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Sources:
iPod guilty pleasures
Don Fernandez
Cox News, Sept. 11, 2004 12:00 AM

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/pop/articles/0911ipod11.html

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This is truly a Friday Night Jazz: Via the NYT, we learn that Wolfgang’s Vault has a substantial collection of pristine audio recording from the Newport Jazz Festival.

Some of the recordings will blow you away — I suggest the Count Basie concert, but all 3 are excellent (free registration required).

There is also Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (1959) and Dakota Staton (1959).

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Thank me after you’ve listened to some of these gems . . . more stuff after the jump

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Source:
Historic Sounds of Newport, Newly Online
BEN RATLIFF
NYT, November 10, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/arts/music/11vault.html

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