Very few music fans who were around during the mid-eighties were indifferent to The Smiths – you might love them or hate them, like Marmite really, but you were unlikely not to have much of an opinion. This is what drove their success of course – the fans were the kind of fans who would queue for hours, days even, to get tickets for gigs or the latest release.

With that kind of adoration, the fact that there was also a bunch of people going around saying how much they hated them (not simply didn’t think much of, or even actively disliked, but hated) only served to intrigue the uninitiated, who would then be all the more likely to buy the latest single/album/gig ticket to see what all the fuss was about, and would then either end up slagging them off at every opportunity or queuing for hours in the rain in Wolverhampton hoping to sneak in to the show.

Not that you could do much to get away from them during their heyday, they were everywhere, Top of the Pops, NME, Smash Hits even. For a few years, the Smiths simply were indie music – not that there was too much competition – never forget this is the era that gave us the Wonderstuff and Neds Atomic Dustbin.

The reason they elicited such polarised opinions was of course their front man, Morrissey, he of the curiously flowered back pocket. The music was new too, no doubt, and influential (Travis and Coldplay are the distant dismal ancestors of their bright sparkly sound) but they were riding the wave the new style, rather than being its originators, and anyway, it wasn’t the kind of musical revolution that inspired deep seated passion in and of itself (unlike punk which felt like the end of the world or a new dawn depending on how many Emerson Lake and Palmer records you had). No, when a white-socked casual said they hated the Smiths, what they meant was they hated Morrissey, his attitude, his persona, the whole world-view expressed in his lyrics.

This double CD, ‘The Sound Of The Smiths’, complete with glossy photo booklet, is a pretty impressive document of the band’s activities over those five years from ‘83-’87, all the singles, most of the B-sides, some live recordings and alternative takes. The obsessive fans will have all this stuff already, the equally passionate haters would rather gnaw off their own genitals than have to sit through nearly two hours of the stuff; I guess the CD is intended to introduce the kids to their back catalogue and a jolly good job it will do of that.

For myself, I can’t believe that this stuff is all upwards of twenty years old. Given that it is all such ancient history, the band sounds fantastic. No scrap that, the band sounds fantastic full stop. I remember loving Johnny Marr’s guitar then, and I still do now, but I had forgotten (or not noticed) how effective the rhythm section of Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce was. Those three drove the songs along beautifully, and the music they produced was timeless.

Although I owned a few Smiths records, and thanks to my friend Marcus (who was one of those obsessive fans) listened to pretty much all of it at one time or another, I was never able to make that jump into full-scale fandom, and it was Morrissey that got in my way. I was young and impressionable enough to think that I must have been missing something, perhaps I wasn’t sensitive or poetic enough, I don’t know, but now I am old and ornery I can say with my head held up high that he just wasn’t much cop.

There is room for sensitive poetic young men in popular music, of course there is, but a room containing Nick Drake and Morrissey would only contain one sensitive poetic young man and he wouldn’t be from Manchester. Sticking flowers down your trousers only makes you sensitive if you develop a rash; I challenge any listener to this CD to find even one line which shows any concern whatsoever for the feelings of others.

Writing couplets such as ‘Does the mind rule the body or does the body rule the mind? I don’t know’ (and just sticking it in a song a propos of nothing) does not make you a poet, it only shows that you like to sound clever and profound and that you have no inclination towards metaphysical speculation. Come to think of it, Francis Rossi is more of a sensitive poetic young man than Morissey ever was. (Compare ‘I was looking for a job and then I found a job’ and ‘I like it I like it I like it I like it I la-la-la-like it, la-la-la-like it’; at least in the latter the repetition imparts a rhythmic urgency to the sentiment rather than making the line fall flat on its face – I’m only half-joking.)

If you knew and loved the Smiths, buy this CD for completeness’ sake. If you haven’t heard them, buy it and make your own mind up. Me, I’m off to make some toast and see if I still like Marmite.

By: Jim Driscoll

*** To celebrate the release of The Sound Of The Smiths, an unprecedented 45-track Anthology of hits, b-sides, live tracks and rarities released November 10, 2008 in the UK and November 11th in the US, Inked Mag.com is hosting a tattoo contest.

Entrants are eligible by submitting a photo of their Smiths and / or Morrissey tattoo. Grand prize winner will receive a copy of The Smiths UK Singles box set with a runner-up to receive a copy of the Deluxe 2-CD edition of The Sound Of The Smiths.

Contest ends November 30, 2008. More info at Inked Mag.com / The Smiths ***

Listening Party Links:

qtime
wmedia – low
wmedia – high
real

Listening Party Track list:

1. Hand In Glove
2. This Charming Man
3. What Difference Does It Make? (Peel Session version)
4. How Soon Is Now? (12″ version)
5. That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore
6. There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
7. Panic
8. Girlfriend In A Coma
9. Meat Is Murder (Live)
10. The Queen Is Dead

The Smiths on amazon.com

The Smiths on amazon.co.uk

The Sound Of The Smiths Track Listing (US release):

SINGLE-CD VERSION

1. “Hand in Glove” – Single Version
2. “This Charming Man” – Single Version
3. “What Difference Does It Make” – Peel Sessions Version
4. “Still Ill” – Album Version
5. “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” – Single Version
6. “William, It Was Really Nothing” – Single Version
7. “How Soon Is Now?” – 12″ Single
8. “Nowhere Fast” – Album Version
9. “Shakespeare’s Sister” – Single Version
10. “Barbarism Begins At Home” – 7″ Version
11. “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore” – Single Version
12. “The Headmaster Ritual” – Album Version
13. “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side” – Single Version
14. “Bigmouth Strikes Again” – Single Version
15. “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” – Album Version
16. “Panic” – Single Version
17. “Ask” – Single Version
18. “You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet Baby” – Single Version
19. “Shoplifters Of The World Unite” – Single Version
20. “Sheila Take A Bow” – Single Version
21. “Girlfriend In A Coma” – Single Version
22. “I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish” – Single Version
23. “Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me” – Single Version

DOUBLE CD DELUXE VERSION
(Includes the Single CD along with the following)

1. “Jeane” – Single B-Side
2. “Handsome Devil” – - Single B-Side, Live 1983
3. “This Charming Man” (New York vocal)- 12″ Single
4. “Wonderful Woman” – 12″ Single
5. “Back To The Old House” – Single B-Side
6. “These Things Take Time” – 12″ Single B-Side
7. “Girl Afraid” – Single B-Side
8. “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” – Single B-Side
9. “Stretch Out And Wait” – Single B-Side
10. “Oscillate Wildly” – 12″ Single B-Side
11. “Meat Is Murder” – Live In Oxford – Single B-Side
12. “Asleep” – Single B-Side
13. “Money Changes Everything” – Single B-Side
14. “The Queen Is Dead” “Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty” – Medley
15. “Vicar In A Tutu” – Single B-Side
16. “Cemetry Gates” – Single B-Side
17. “Half A Person” – Single B-Side
18. “Sweet And Tender Hooligan” – 12″ Single B-Side
19. “Pretty Girls Make Graves” — Single B-Side, Troy Tate Version
20. “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before” – Album Version
21. “What’s The World” -Live In Glasgow
22. “London” – Live In London

The Smiths on Wikipedia

The first thing to say about ‘Hurricane’ is that it is a classy bit of work, and I’m not just saying that because I’m old enough to remember Russell Harty. The production values on this CD are high, the list of collaborators (Brian Eno, Tricky, Sly and Robbie amongst others) stellar, the songs strong, Grace Jones‘ voice inimitable. She makes her own rules, does Grace, always has, no doubt always will, her voice is her own and no-one else’s, a rare commodity in these corporate and homogenised times. Let this be said because this album is good, very good, and it deserves to be measured against the highest standards, which is I’m sure just how Ms Jones would want it.

Even measured against those highest standards, there is little to complain about. “Sunset Sunrise” is not just classic Grace Jones, it is classic pure and simple, with an infectious pop reggae rhythm (that’s Sly and Robbie for you), memorable melody, strong lyrics, a sentiment befitting someone, how to put this, not as young as once she was. I don’t mean to be rude here – the sooner we get over this ridiculous glorification of youth that has plagued our culture for decades the better. We’re all going to get old and die so get over it, which is incidentally one of the things this song says, with the wisdom and lightness of touch which comes with age. I also don’t mean to imply that she doesn’t still look fantastic because she does, far better if you ask me than the sleek, androgynous and implausibly shiny Jones that graced the cover of Island Life, but I digress.

It feels indelicate to mention this, but it has been nearly twenty-five years since her last album, and in model/pop star terms she was old then (nearly thirty perhaps, the mind boggles). This is relevant only because one of the things that lifts this album above the ordinary is the way that she is not masking anything, ignoring or distorting where she is at right now, but rather simply singing about her life with daring, self-assurance, and a surprising amount of heartfelt reminiscence. See for example “I’m Crying (Mother’s Tears)” (note the position of the apostrophe – she is not crying the tears of mothers in general here) and the upcoming single “Williams’ Blood”.

“Love You To Life” and “Well Well Well” also bring to the fore the pop reggae vibe that works so well whenever it appears on this album, some distance away from the clipped and brittle groove that defined older tracks such as “Pull Up To The Bumper Baby” and “Love is the Drug”, and giving the songs a glorious uplifting mood even when the underlying message of the song is more sombre or reflective.

The other tracks explore a harder-edged, darker sound, which is where the high standards come into play. Listened to in the background they have enough hooks to keep the brain engaged, and the lyrical content is on the whole strong. Even the opening track “This Is”, which threatens to be little more than vapid posturing (’This is my voice/My weapon of choice’) is redeemed by the rest of the album, where she really does use her voice (not just her singing voice, but her attitude, her whole mode of being) as a weapon. But listen more carefully, and a few worries appear. There is no lack of inspired ideas – on the contrary, on tracks like “Corporate Cannibal”, “Devil In My Life” and “This Is”, the problem is that there are too many ideas, which tend to pile up against each other without the kind of careful development that could make them shine. And the lightness of touch which made the rhythm section such a joy on the more reggae-inspired numbers translates into a lack of aggression to match the muscularity of the lyrics. (The official website optimistically describes the music as ‘industrial’ – Ministry is industrial, this isn’t, it simply isn’t nasty enough.) The structure of the title track is, I’m sure, intended to mirror a hurricane, with two heavy sections book-ending a quieter, beat-free passage. But the build-up at the end of that middle section doesn’t explode into life, rather the beats come in one after the other, almost apologetically, robbing the listener of the satisfaction of an abrupt transition.

But enough of these niggles. ‘Hurricane’ is a fine album, and it improves with every listen. If you know Grace Jones from her eighties heyday, you’ll recognise the improvement on her earlier work, and appreciate the way she has grown up in the same way you have; if you are too young to remember her first time out, you’ll be impressed by an artist from a previous era sounding so energetic and contemporary in her approach. Either way, you’ll be glad you’ve been graced.

Grace Jones – Hurricane on amazon.co.uk

Hurricane on amazon.com

Grace Jones – The Hurricane is Coming Website

MySpace

Grace Jones Official Website

By: Jim Driscoll

Grayson Capps has had quite a life so far. A childhood spent listening to his father and friends getting drunk, telling stories and strumming guitars, a spell at Tulane University as a theatre major, during which time he formed two bands which enjoyed ‘moderate national success’ (The House Levelers and Stavin’ Chain), a period squatting on the outskirts of New Orleans, a lucky break writing songs for the movie ‘A Love Song for Bobby Long’ (based on his own father’s unpublished novel) and a move to a farmhouse in Tennessee in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which was the venue for the sessions that resulted in his latest album, ‘Rott ‘n’ Roll’.

And what a blast the sessions sound – afternoons rehearsing, evenings spent sitting round the bonfire in Capps’ backyard, cutting a track ‘if the spirit moved them’ (notice the absence of any activities in the mornings). Fun to record, then, and fun to listen to. This is Southern roots music at its very best, respectful to the past, yet uninhibited by history, recognisably of its place and yet not formulaic, just a bunch of good musicians kicking about a bunch of good songs.

“Grand Maw Maw” and “Big Ole Woman” are joyously dumb and dirty rock and roll, “Psychic Channel Blues” beautifully smoky, “Arrowhead” glorious country in the outlaw style, “Ike” in the grand old tradition of country story songs, “Bacon” a good old-fashioned rockin’ instrumental. We even have, with “Fear Fruit Bearing Tree”, a spoken word track (that’s right, whisper it, a poem) which, although occasionally marred by some obsessive rhyming (’we create the confusion/so take a dose of seclusion/to dilute the delusion’), also contains some effective poetic conceits (greed is the seed of a fear fruit bearing tree / … / now did Eve give it to Adam / or did Adam give it to Eve / … / well, they bit then, and we all bite now / because we’re constantly taught how / and we are now the seeds of a fear fruit bearing tree’), and is saved from mediocrity by the sheer passion of Capps’ performance.

All the performances on this CD are excellent. It is invidious to pick any one band member out for special praise – Tommy MacLuckie’s guitar is sweet and dirty, gentle and fierce, Josh Kerrin’s bass solid and understated, which is to say everything he plays is in the service of the song (a dream bass player in other words), John Milham’s drums swing or rock as required and Capps’ vocals just so warm and easy, cracking in all the right places. These performances are beautifully captured in the recording (for which Trina Shoemaker is credited), which focuses on the individual instruments enough to let the cymbals hiss like metal rain and the guitars sing and cry, but also weaves the sound of the whole band together so that you can hear where the guys were standing in the room when they recorded. There are overdubs on the album, but it is no surprise to hear that the bones of most of the tracks are first takes recorded live – after a suitably enjoyable evening round the campfire no doubt.

If you are a fan of Americana, or looking for a way in to contemporary country music that avoids the flag waving corporate slickness of much of the output of Nashville these days, my advice is to pack a bag and head on down to Capps’ farmhouse; if you can’t afford the airfare, then buy this CD and transport yourself there for a fraction of the cost.

Grayson Capps – Rott ‘N’ Roll on amazon.com

Rott ‘n’ Roll amazon.co.uk

Photo Credits: top – Collin Peterson; bottom – Karen Will Rogers

Grayson Capps Official Website
MySpace

By: Jim Driscoll

Man the boy can play. ‘Sobre el Atelier’ is an instrumental CD of hot piano music from young Cuban virtuoso Harold Lopez Nussa. The CD contains original compositions as well as American and Cuban standards (most well-known of which is Wayne Shorter’s “Footprints”), and one track, “Bruma en Otono” by a certain Ernan Lopez Nussa, who one can only assume is our Harold’s dad. Bless.

Lopez Nussa has a rock steady left hand, a right hand of fluency and grace, and not a little of the famous Cuban passion and flair. Although he is not (yet) up there with the greats, that is only because a certain youthful exuberance and flashiness gets in the way of true expressiveness – though, lets be fair, if you can’t be flashy when you are young and good-looking, when can you be flashy?

Let him have his heart broken by some beautiful woman, let him fall out of critical favour for a spell, let him give in to the dark whispering voices of doubt, and then he’ll really play some stuff that will take us all to piano heaven. One to watch, no doubt about it.

Forgive me if I get the music out of the way so quickly (it is good, really good, go out and buy it, you won’t be disappointed), but there is some political stuff to discuss here, and if you think politics has nothing to do with music, bear with me, I agree with you, to a certain extent at least.

I am quite happy to big up Harold Lopez Nussa’s music, with minor reservations (see above), and more than happy to big up Cuban music in general, with no reservations, I mean, they produce some righteous sounds in Cuba, and no-one I mean no-one ought to carp about such a rich musical heritage. But get this. The generously provided review copy of this CD comes accompanied by a booklet entitled ‘La Guia Esencial de la Habana’ (’Havana’s Essential City Guide’), complete with moody-looking Cuban babes on the cover and a handy fold-out map of the capital on the inside of the back cover, and a general invitation to participate in a ‘viral’ marketing campaign promoting the attractions of Cuba. The idea is that I will like the CD, browse the book and say to you all, ‘wow, isn’t Cuba great, and lots of restaurants and clubs. Looks pretty funky. You should go’.

Now, big changes are shortly to be underway in Cuba when ol’ Fidel finally pops his clogs, whether that amounts to a change in leadership or a change of political system, and no doubt tourist dollars will come in handy for the economy, but please let’s not rush out to sample the delights of Havana’s clubs and restaurants without deciding what we think about the political system. You may think Cuba is a socialist paradise or a communist hell, but either way you should recognise that all this marketing of the culture has political consequences and act accordingly. Don’t let the marketers blind you with glossy brochures and virally induced recommendations.

The politics are not simple, and I’m not going to tell you that a decision to visit Cuba (still less a decision to buy ‘Sobre el Atelier’) is directly either supporting or helping to bring about the end of the socialist regime. But the Cuban revolution was born out of the decadent Batista regime, when the rich of America flew to Havana to gamble, drink and f**k on the cheap, to the immense benefit of a small Cuban elite. So know what it is you are buying into. Cuba has, despite the long and until recently firmly enforced American economic embargo (supported by Republican and Democratic presidents since the ’50s), one of the best health-care systems in the world, and exports its medical workers to poor countries across the globe. It has also imprisoned hundreds, if not thousands, of political prisoners, some for decades. All those quaint ’50s cars on Cuba’s roads are still running, not because they are all fans of Happy Days, but because there have been no automotive imports for nearly sixty years.

Do you think socialism has been good for the people of Cuba? You decide (but inform yourself before you do – for two very different accounts of the Cuban experience from diametrically opposed perspectives, see Havana Journal by Andrew Salkey and View of Dawn in the Tropics by G Carbrera Infante). Cuba is not just another tourist destination, no matter how much the viral marketers and money men would like to persuade you that it is. Cuba is at a crossroads. Like it or not, by bigging up Cuban culture at this point in time, we in the West are inevitably influencing the future direction of this great island culture, one way or the other. If you want to do that, go ahead, but do it according to your own agenda, not somebody else’s.

By: Jim Driscoll

Havana Club, a window to contemporary Cuban culture, invites you to discover its Havana-Cultura.com website, showcasing the great creativity of Cuban artists:

Havana-Cultura.com Official Website
Harold Lopez Nussa profile on Havana-Cultura.com

Harold Lopez Nussa on Wikipedia

Golden Smog, an alt-country super group by all accounts, is what Soul Asylum’s Dan Murphy calls (a central Golden Smog member) “an ad hoc group of musicians” and is made up of members from Soul Asylum, the Jayhawks, Run Westy Run, Wilco/Uncle Tupelo, and occasionally Big Star, the Replacements and the Honeydogs.

They all seem to muck in together, the various members’ roles in the band not being clearly defined. As the liner notes to this CD state, “Tradition decrees that each musician’s primary instrument appears after their name, but in the Smog, anyone might play anything at any time, and would.”

It sounds like it too. I mean that in a good way, mind. You can hear the enjoyment of the musicians, the freshness of the songs, the semi-jammed nature of much of the material. The fact that now, in 2008, we celebrate the 16th anniversary of their first release, ‘On Golden Smog’, means that they have been doing this for a long time and are very good at it.

Photo Credit: Gordon Stettinius/courtesy of Rykodisc
More info: L-R: Dan Murphy, Marc Perlman, Kraig Johnson, Jeff Tweedy, Jody Stephens, Gary Louris

It is no surprise to learn that they record their material (’On Golden Smog’, ‘Down By The Old Mainstream’ (great title by the way), and ‘Weird Tales’, from which the majority of this disc’s tracks are culled) fast – one album took five days to record, and that is slow by Smog standards. Fast recording like this is an unalloyed good thing, far, far better than the depressing modern tendency to spend months or (get this) years in the studio.

Take any release recorded in that way – if the music is no good, it will still be no good, no matter how long you spend fiddling with it; if the music is good, I guarantee the demos will sound better than the finished release. Come on record company executives, times are hard and a lot of rubbish is being released. To improve the quality of your product, and incidentally to cut your costs, give your artists all the time they need to write and rehearse their stuff, but give ‘em a week, or better an afternoon to record it. That was more than enough time for Captain Beefheart (’Trout Mask Replica’ – one day), Funkadelic (’Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow’ – one day), Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci (’The Blue Trees’ – three days). It was not long enough for Coldplay. I rest my case.

I am new to the Smog (as I have learned to call them), but they are good. The CD starts extremely well with “Until U Came Along”, peaks with the sublime “Jennifer Save Me”, and only slightly dips in the middle of a long (hour-plus) ‘best of’ collection, before finishing in grand style with an alternative version of the opener (better than the released version at the top of the album, even allowing for some disastrous whistling in the instrumental coda – musicians take note, despite the attractions of lo-tech approaches, whistling, like yodelling, is always a BAD IDEA) and a final ‘previously unissued’ “Love and Mercy”, taking in some great songs along the way (”Pecan Pie”). There’s only one absolute duffer, “He’s a Dick” – file under ’seemed like a good idea at the time’ or perhaps ‘I’m glad I got that off my chest’.

There are, of course, only three types of music – good music, bad music, and country music. The Smog play country music (f*** this ‘alt-country’ shit, that’s just to spare the blushes of the kids) and they play it well, especially when they strip it down (the aforementioned “Pecan Pie”) or when they get a bit spacey on yo’ ass (”Jennifer Save Me”). They clearly had fun playing this stuff. You will have fun listening to it.

One gripe, and it’s not at the band. There are only two tracks on the album unavailable elsewhere. These are clearly designed to force the fans of a completist persuasion to buy what is essentially a taster album. Record company executives, times are hard but I’m sure there is a ton of ‘previously unavailable’ Smog material (they seem that kind of band), bring it out on one CD and do us all a favour!

Listening Party Links:

Party Page
QT
WMA 56.wax
WMA 100.wax
Real

“Love And Mercy” video – Filmed at the Barack Obama rally, Target Center, Minneapolis.

Stay Golden, Smog: The Best of Golden Smog on amazon.com

Golden Smog Official Website

By: Jim Driscoll

There are things to like about Neil Halstead. His songs are wistful and well-constructed, the arrangements are tasteful, with his back-up band supplementing and supporting the songs rather than drowning them with unnecessary and inappropriate additions – and he has a fine way with a title (”Witless or Wise”, “No Mercy For The Muse”, “Baby I Grew You A Beard”).

He works in that fine tradition of earnest young men with acoustic guitars, singing songs of love and loss, a tradition that goes down very well with other earnest young men and the kind of women who find earnest young men appealing.

For my money, “No Mercy For The Muse” is the standout track on the album because it is on this track that all the elements of Halstead’s sound (and he does have a very definite sound – see below) come together to form a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

The laid-back vocal style meshes convincingly with the subject matter, the title encapsulates the theme of the song, the lyrics are clear and straightforward, exploring directly and with the minimum of fuss the feelings of a woman who is constantly having songs written about her by earnest young men with acoustic guitars. A subject matter that is of clear concern to Halstead. It has some interest in its own right, providing as it does a nice twist to the kind of songs earnest young men with acoustic guitars tend to write, and showing some awareness on Halstead’s part that earnestness and possession of an acoustic guitar might not be the only valid ways of approaching the problem of living well in the world.

Watch “Queen Bee” video

But the very elements that succeed so well on this song also lead the album as a whole to be less successful than it might have been. The earnestness, the gentleness, the tastefulness, when spread over a twelve track album all contribute to the sense that there is no development in the work. The single, “Queen Bee” promises to break the mould, starting as it does with what is in the context a thrillingly punchy drum intro, but then the rest of the instruments come in and the drum pattern is lost in the same earnest, gentle, laid-back tastefulness that characterises the rest of the album.

There is a fine line between exploring a particular mood and writing the same song again and again, and ‘Oh! Mighty Engine’ doesn’t entirely fall on the right side of this line. After listening to this album, some listeners may find themselves admiring Halstead’s sensitivity and good taste; unfortunately, some others (myself included) may find themselves wishing this promising songwriter would just put his back into it a little bit more.

Neil Halstead September 2008 tour dates:

22-Sep-08 Leeds Faversham
23-Sep-08 Wolverhampton Little Civic
24-Sep-08 London St giles in the fields
25-Sep-08 Manchester Sacred trinity church
26-Sep-08 Glasgow King Tuts – Dave McGeachen

Oh! Mighty Engine on amazon.co.uk

Neil Halstead MySpace

By: Jim Driscoll

Even if you’re not one of Slightly Stoopid’s fans (and judging from MySpace there are a lot of them out there), you should know what you are going to get from the title of this CD of ‘outtakes, rarities and a couple of new joints’.

Indeed, in that respect, ‘Slightly Not Stoned Enough to Eat Breakfast Yet Stoopid‘ doesn’t disappoint – efficient and proficient dub/ska/stoner jams, drenched in the California sunshine and liberal helpings of weed – though the band are clearly that peculiarly American breed of stoner who are fearsomely focussed on business.

No criticism this, it has allowed them to preserve their amiably shuffling music whilst playing a whole load of American dates, and I mean a load, producing a large back catalogue, and developing an impressive on-line presence.

But here’s the problem with weed – if you’re stoned, then a little bit of dubby bass, offbeat chops and the odd overdriven guitar solo is all it takes to make you very happy indeed. Throw in some cute and well-designed on-line gizmos (’Stoopid Search and Win – Search the Web and Win Prizes’), and you have all you need to reel ‘em in. Rebellion 2.0 (’all we need is good sensie’ – “No Cocaine”).

But then, there’s stoner jams and stoner jams; if the dubby bass is proper, if the chops are sharp, then they do their work whether you are stoned or not. And whilst some of the tracks on the CD only promise to kick off before wandering away apologetically (”I Would Do For You”, “Thinkin Bout Cops”), and one is just plain terrible cheesy hell (”On and On”), others are well, not quite righteous, but pretty damn good (”London Dub”, “Train 1″).

This outtake CD then, like all outtake CDs, is patchy, mopping up the stuff which didn’t make it onto earlier releases. But Slightly Stoopid are nothing if not prolific (if the band are to be believed, much of the material here comes from the sessions for their latest ‘proper’ release which generated ‘forty to fifty’ songs), and are building up their growing reputation on the back of incessant touring, which is exactly how it should be.

One for the fans, then, this; the slightly sceptical Stoopid neophyte is no doubt advised to check out their earlier releases such as ‘Acoustic Roots’ or ‘Closer to the Sun’ (or perhaps just light up a fat one and go with the flow).

Slightly Not Stoned Enough to Eat Breakfast on amazon.com
amazon.co.uk

Slightly Stoopid Myspace
Slightly Stoopid Official Website

By: Jim Driscoll

The blues in Britain has always been derivative. It was appropriated mercilessly in the 60s of course by the likes of the Rolling Stones and Cream, but the innovations of those artists took the music sideways into the kinds of rock stylings that spawned Led Zeppelin and ‘eavy metal.

Even the most ‘authentic’ (whatever that slippery word is supposed to mean) of the British blues artists, such as John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, although capturing reasonably accurately the sound of indigenous American blues, missed out on the penumbra of the music, the undercurrent of feeling and experience given by the culture from which it came. London is not Chicago or the Mississippi delta; imitation is not immersion, it is at best respectful homage.

Inevitably, perhaps, the blues scene in America itself seemed to follow a similar trajectory, at least the parts of it that lapped up on these shores. Electric blues was an innovation in the genre, but it was intimately tied to the great social upheavals of the 30s, and as the music became more distant from those seismic events, it departed from the tradition or simply repeated it. The upheavals of later decades created funk, soul, acid rock; Chicago is to the blues today what New Orleans is (or until recently was) for jazz – museum and theme park, still vibrant and alive, but too concerned with, too respectful of, the expectations of the cultural tourist to take the music forward.

Which is why Seasick Steve is such a joy. Unconcerned with the dictates of the blues police (self-appointed guardians of the flame), playing for kids who have never heard of Son House and only care whether the music rocks, he is free to play the blues in a way which should expunge forever the memories of dreary Sunday afternoon pub blues bands or Robert Cray.

Let’s be clear – in any terms, ‘I Started Out With Nothin’ And I Still Got Most Of It Left’ is fantastic (the opener “Started Out With Nothing” and “Thunderbird” rock like hell; “Walking Man” doesn’t rock, it lilts and breaks your heart); in blues terms, it is a great, glorious anomaly – recorded in Norfolk, featuring Nick Cave and Grinderman as guest artists, it is both rooted in the tradition and subversive of it. His guitar lines recall Taj Mahal, John Lee Hooker, even on “Prospect Lane” JJ Cale, his vocals veer close on occasion to Beefheart and Howlin’ Wolf, without ever being anyone else but Seasick Steve.

The songs are new and fresh, narrative gems, deeply personal yet universal, howls or whispers of joy and despair, and although they are always blues songs (the least successful song on the CD to my mind, “Just Like a King”, is the song that strays the furthest from the blues structure), they are as far from the woke-up-this-morning, last-refuge-of-the-uninspired-musician 12-bar jam as it is possible to get.

The production is fantastic too. We hear Steve introduce the songs, we hear the creaking of the chair as he leans back, the fingers on the strings, he admits on the intro to “Chiggers” that he ought to have got rid of the guitar he is playing years ago; in short, we are in the room with the musicians, listening to them do their thing, the production values so appropriate as to be invisible. It is good to know that a major label can still recognise when to butt out and let an artist be themselves.

Beefheart took the blues and produced psychedelic nightmares; the Rolling Stones took the blues and produced raucous pop; Robert Cray took the blues and should have given it back; Seasick Steve takes the blues and produces the blues. Rock on.

Track Listings:

1. Started Out With Nothing
2. Walking Man
3. St Louis Slim
4. Happy Man
5. Prospect Lane
6. Thunderbird
7. Fly By Night
8. Just Like A King
9. One True
10. Chiggers
11. My Youth

Set for UK release 29 September 2008 on Warner Bros. Records.

I Started Out With Nothin’ and I Still Got Most of It Left on amazon.co.uk

Seasick Steve – amazon.com

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Seasick Steve Official Website

By: Jim Driscoll