Mogwai - Soundtracks (2020)

I've been a fan of Scottish post-rockers Mogwai from their very first recordings, way back in 1996 with their 'Summer' 7" single. Every album release has been excellent, and I can't recall another band who have been around for so long who don't seem to have put a foot wrong in their career, garnering the same respect now as they did when they spear-headed the whole post-rock movement in the late 90's. Their music has always been cinematic in scope, and so it was no surprise when they moved into soundtrack work, after a couple of films in the early 2000's had used their music on their soundtracks. After collaborating with Clint Mansell and The Kronos Quartet on 'The Fountain' in 2006, they were given their first commission, to compose and play the score for 'Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait' the following year, which was released as an album to universal acclaim. Since then they've composed the music for the international hit French TV series 'Les Revenants', as well as scoring the soundtracks for such worthy films as the 2015 documentary on the legacy of Hiroshima 'Atomic', and Leonardo DeCaprio's climate change film 'Before The Flood', as well as contributing to Amnesty International's PEACE Project in 2010. As some of this work could easily be over-looked, even by fans such as me (I didn't get the 'Zidane' album until some years after it was released, as I didn't consider it a 'real' Mogwai album), I've picked a representative example of their work from each of the films that they've been involved in, and collected them together in one showcase of what a diverse and talented band they are.    

Track listing

01 I Know You Are But What Am I? (from the film 'Wicker Park' 2004)
02 Auto Rock (from the film 'Miami Vice' 2006) 
03 Tree Of Life  (from the film 'The Fountain' 2006) 
04 Terrific Speech (from the film 'Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait' 2007)
05 Cody (Cava) (donated to Amnesty International's 'PEACE Project' 2010) 
06 Hungry Face (from the TV series 'Les Revenants' 2013) 
07 SCRAM (from the film 'Atomic' 2015) 
08 Huaynaputina (from the film 'Before The Flood' 2016)
09 Helicon 1 (from the film 'Beautiful Boy' 2018)
10 Eli's Theme (from the film 'KIN' 2018)   
11 Moon In Reverse (from the TV series 'Zerozerozero' 2020)

Johnny Marr - ...and on guitar (2010)

John Martin Maher (aka Johnny Marr) was born on 31 October 1963, and originally had aspirations to become a professional footballer, being approached by Nottingham Forest, and securing trials with Manchester City. At the age of 13, Marr's family moved him to a new neighbourhood in Manchester where he met up with a bunch of guitar players which changed his life, including The Cult guitarist Billy Duffy, who Marr would listen to rehearsing across the street from his new house. He formed his first band at 13 with Andy Rourke and Kevin Williams, and The Paris Valentinos performed at a Jubilee party in Benchill in June 1977, playing Rolling Stones and Thin Lizzy covers. In 1979 he re-united with Rourke in White Dice, who won a demo-tape competition organised by the NME, for which the prize was an audition with F-Beat Records, although it didn't result in a record deal. In October 1980, Marr enrolled at Wythenshawe College, and after White Dice dissolved in 1981, he and Rourke formed a funk band, Freak Party, with Simon Wolstencroft on drums. By early 1982 Freak Party had fizzled out, being unable to find a vocalist, so Marr approached Rob Allman, singer in White Dice, who suggested Steven Morrissey, a singer with the short-lived punk band the Nosebleeds. Marr approached a mutual friend asking to be introduced and they visited Morrissey at his house in Kings Road, Stretford in May 1981. With the line-up of The Smiths completed with he addition of Mike Joyce on drums, the band signed to Rough Trade Records and released their first single 'Hand In Glove' in 1983. 

By February 1984, the band's fanbase was sufficiently large to launch the band's long-awaited eponymous debut album to number two in the UK chart. Early in 1985, the band released their second album 'Meat Is Murder', which was more strident and political than its predecessor, becoming the band's only album (barring compilations) to reach number one in the UK charts. In 1986 the band released 'The Queen Is Dead', an album which has consistently topped polls of the greatest albums ever made, but despite their continued success, personal differences within the band, including the increasingly strained relationship between Morrissey and Marr, saw them on the verge of splitting. In July 1987, Marr left the group, and auditions to find a replacement for him proved fruitless. By the time 'Strangeways, Here We Come' was released in September, the band had split. The breakdown in the relationship has been primarily attributed to Morrissey's becoming annoyed by Marr's work with other artists, and this collection shows that he did offer his services to a number of artists between 1984 and 2010, although seemingly not that many while he was still a member of The Smiths. In August 1987, he was very briefly an official member of the Pretenders, touring with the band and appearing on the single 'Windows Of The World', and after leaving The Pretenders he recorded and toured with The The from 1988 to 1994, recording two albums with the group. He simultaneously formed Electronic with New Order's Bernard Sumner, releasing three albums during the 90's, and in 1992 he recorded a cover version of Ennio Morricone's 'The Good, The Bad And The Ugly' with Billy Duffy for the NME compilation 'Ruby Trax'. He's also worked as a session musician and writing collaborator for artists including Pet Shop Boys, Billy Bragg, Tom Jones, Kirsty MacColl, Black Grape, Talking Heads, and Beck, and this double disc set shows the wide variety of artists who have felt that having Marr added to their music would make it just that little bit special.  

Track listing

Disc One
01 Hand In Glove (single by Sandie Shaw 1984)
02 Greetings To The New Brunette (single by Billy Bragg 1986)
03 Windows Of The World (single by The Pretenders 1988)
04 (Nothing But) Flowers (from 'Naked' by Talking Heads 1988)
05 Still Feel The Rain (single by Stex 1990)
06 This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave (from 'Behaviour' by Pet Shop Boys 1990)
07 Walking Down Madison (from 'Electric Landlady' by Kirsty MacColl 1991)
08 This Is Your Life (from 'Ripe' by Banderas 1991)
09 The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (from the 'Ruby Trax' compilation 1992)
09 Dogs Of Lust (single by The The 1993)
10 Rays Of The Rising Sun (single by Denise Johnson 1994)

Disc Two
01 Fat Neck (single by Black Grape 1996)
02 Rhythm And Blues (from 'Fresco' by M People 1997)
03 Lust For Life (from 'Reload' by Tom Jones 1999)
04 Milk And Honey (from 'Midnite Vultures' by Beck 1999)
05 Fool's Mate (from 'Crimson Tide' by Bert Jansch 2000)  
06 (Probably) All In The Mind (from 'Heathen Chemistry' by Oasis 2002)
07 Even A Child (from 'Time On Earth' by Crowded House 2007)
08 Enough Of Me (from 'The Empyrean' by John Frusciante 2009) 
09 The Whale Song (from 'No One's First, And You're Next' by Modest Mouse 2009)
10 Ordinary Millionaire (from 'Propellor Time' by Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 2010) 

Thanks to the Anonymous comment just before Christmas for suggesting this one.

Whitesnake - Herpetology (1997)

This may be seen as blasphemy, but I've always preferred David Coverdale over Ian Gillan as vocalist of Deep Purple, and wish he'd have recorded more albums with them, but at least we have Whitesnake, so I shouldn't complain. The band were formed in 1978 after Coverdale left Deep Purple and recorded his solo album 'Whitesnake' in 1977, with the core studio line-up remaining as his backing band for the tour to promote the album. For the tour they were known as The White Snake Band, and they retained the title, shortening it slightly to Whitesnake, as they continued to tour with Coverdale as his support band. At this time the group was made up of David Coverdale, Bernie Marsden, Micky Moody, Neil Murray, and drummer David "Duck" Dowle, along with keyboardists Brian Johnston, who was soon replaced by Procol Harum organ player and keyboardist Pete Solley. Because of Solley's producing commitments he was replaced by former Deep Purple keyboard player Jon Lord during sessions for the first LP. Before that, though, the band's first recordings were released as the 'Snakebite EP' in 1978, which included a cover of the Bobby "Blue" Bland song 'Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City', proving that the new wave of British heavy metal could break the pop charts. The debut album 'Trouble' was released in the autumn of 1978 and peaked at No. 50 in the UK album charts, and they followed this with 'Lovehunter' the following year, this time breaking the top 30. Shortly after that, drummer Ian Paice replaced David Dowle, giving Whitesnake three ex-Deep Purple members, and this new line-up recorded the 1980 release 'Ready An' Willing', which was the breakthrough hit for the band, reaching the UK Top 10 and becoming their first entry into the U.S. Top 100. In 1981 the band recorded 'Come An' Get It', which climbed to No. 2 in the UK album charts, but the following year Coverdale had to take time off to look after his sick daughter, and he put Whitesnake on hold while he did that. 

When he returned to music, he reformed the band, and after the recording of the album 'Saints & Sinners' in 1982, he replaced Bernie Marsden, Ian Paice, and bass player Neil Murray with Mel Galley from Trapeze, bassist Colin Hodgkinson, and Cozy Powell as the new drummer. In late 1983, this new line-up recorded 'Slide It In', which was released in Europe in early 1984, and was the band's fourth top 10 album in their native UK, peaking at number 9. However, after securing a major US deal with the Geffen label, producer David Geffen insisted that the album be remixed for the US release, with Sykes and Murray re-recording the lead guitar and bass parts. Starting in 1985, Coverdale and Sykes began writing material for a follow-up studio album, aiming for a more modern approach, adding a slick Eighties studio polish to a band that up until 'Slide It In' had a bluesier sound rooted in the 70's. With Cozy Powell leaving to join Emerson, Lake & Powell, and Jon Lord exiting to reform Deep Purple Mk. II, drummer Aynsley Dunbar and keyboardist Don Airey were brought in, and after the album was put on hold for much of 1986 when Coverdale contracted a serious sinus infection that put his singing career in jeopardy, the album was finished in 1987, taking its title from its year of completion. The album was their most commercially successful, spawning hit singles 'Here I Go Again' and 'Is This Love', but long-term fans viewed it as a sell-out, and an attempt to pander to mainstream tastes at the time. I must admit that this is when I lost interest in the band, and so missed their late 90's albums, but re-issues of their records over the years have unearthed some rare tracks from my favourite period, and so I've collected them here. I've added in the four tracks from that very first EP, as they are confusingly scattered over a number of different re-issues, as well as some out-takes and b-sides from the 80's, and even a few 90's flips that are worth hearing, so sit back and enjoy some good old-fashioned heavy metal.  

Track listing

01 Bloody Mary (from the 'Snakebite' EP 1978)

02 Steal Away (from the 'Snakebite' EP 1978)

03 Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City (from the 'Snakebite' EP 1978)

04 Come On (from the 'Snakebite' EP 1978)

05 Soul Survivor (previously unreleased 1982)

06 Need Your Love So Bad (b-side of 'Give Me More Time' 1984)

07 Sweet Lady Luck (b-side of 'Is This Love' 1994)

08 Anything You Want (b-side of 'Don't Fade Away 1997)

09 Oi (b-side of 'Don't Fade Away 1997)

10 Can't Stop Now (b-side of 'Too Many Tears' 1997)

Simon Dupree & The Big Sound - Once More Unto The Breach, Dear Friend (1968)

Simon Dupree And The Big Sound were a British psychedelic band formed in 1966 by brothers Derek Shulman (vocals), Phil Shulman (vocals, saxophone, trumpet), and Ray Shulman (guitar, violin, trumpet, vocals). They started as The Howling Wolves and then became The Road Runners, playing R&B around the Shulman's home town of Portsmouth, before becoming Simon Dupree And The Big Sound in early 1966 (There was, of course, no Simon Dupree, but the band wanted a flashy-sounding name). The rest of the group were Peter O'Flaherty on bass, Eric Hine on keyboards, and Tony Ransley on drums, and the sound was originally focused more on the songs of Wilson Pickett, Don Covay, and Otis Redding. They were signed to EMI's Parlophone label, and issued a few singles which failed to chart, but in 1967 the group's management decided to try moving them in the direction of psychedelia, and one of their singles in this new style was the smash hit 'Kites'. Regarding themselves as blue-eyed soul brothers, they hated it as it was so unrepresentative of their usual style, and the follow-up 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' was only a minor hit, while 'Broken Hearted Pirates' missed the charts completely. A then unknown keyboard player by the name of Reginald Dwight was hired to fill in for an ill Eric Hine on a 1967 tour of Scotland, and he was almost recruited as a permanent member, but they turned him down, and laughed when he told them he was adopting the stage name of Elton John. The group released just one studio album, 1967's excellent 'Without Reservations', but they had made a start on a second record before it was cancelled, and tracks from it turned up on a recent retrospective of their career, so as we have the songs and the title, all we need is some artwork to complete the follow-up to 'Without Reservation'. Frustrated as being seen as one-hit wonders, the band broke up in 1969, with the Shulman brothers going on to some success with their next project, Gentle Giant. 

Track listing

01 Stained Glass Window
02 Please Come Back
03 Light On Dark Water
04 What In This World

05 You
06 Don't Make It So Hard (On Me Baby)
07 Kindness

08 Can't You See
09 Loneliness Is Just State Of Mind
10 Laughing Boy From Nowhere

11 Now

12 What Cha Gonna Do

13 Castle In The Sky
14 Rain
15 Something In The Way She Moves
16 I'm Going Home (John/Taupin)

Imperial Daze - Solid Fair (2020)

Indie-psych-pop quartet Imperial Daze started as a four-piece studio project, made up of singer/guitarist Alex Cameron-Ward, guitarist/bassist Felix Rebaud-Sauer, keyboardist/singer Facundo Rodriguez and drummer Tom Sunney. Following Alex’s previous band being placed in a Sony PS4 advert, Alex, Facundo and Felix decided to build a recording studio together in Battersea, with the intention of making music for advertising under the company name of AudioCommune. Having begun writing music together, late-2016/early-2017 saw Imperial Daze release a short series of hotly received singles, earning critical acclaim and clocking up tens of thousands of plays across streaming platforms. The band’s hazy, rolling indie-pop and self-made success also caught the attention of Rupert Jarvis from The Maccabees and Ian Brundrett from Caroline/Fiction Records, who took the band under their wing for both production and management. Having performed as a studio project up until meeting Jarvis, the decision was made to put a live band together with the idea of recording a first EP and touring, and the 'Solid Fair EP was recorded at The Maccabbes own studio The Drugstore. Another stroke of luck occurred when AudioCommune landed a commission to score an advert for a large ice cream brand, and the the money from that enabled them to build another studio from scratch, inside a giant disused commercial freezer under a railway arch in Central London. Having their own Electric Eel Recording studio has allowed the band to expand their sound and repertoire, scoring, recording and producing the soundtrack to director Nathan Sam Long's short movie 'Give Up The Ghost', while continuing to record music as Imperial Daze. This album collects together those early singles plus the 'Solid Fair' EP, to give an idea of what an album from the band could sound like, and it's pretty good considering it only started as something of a side project to their advertising empire.

Track listing

01 1000 Lives
02 Solid Fair

03 All On Me

04 Work

05 Don't Turn On The Light

06 Man Out Of Myself

07 Minding The Haze

08 Always Settling

09 People Are Animals

10 Centrepole

Tom Jones - This And That (1967)

Thomas John Woodward (aka Tom Jones) was born on 7 June 1940 in Pontypridd, Glamorgan, in South Wales, and began singing at an early age, regularly performing at family gatherings, weddings and in his school choir. His bluesy singing style developed out of the sound of American soul music, and his early influences included blues, R&B and rock and roll singers Little Richard, Solomon Burke, Jackie Wilson, Brook Benton, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. In 1963 he became the frontman for Tommy Scott and the Senators, a Welsh beat group, and in 1964 he recorded several solo tracks with producer Joe Meek, who took them to various record labels with little success, although these tracks would later surface after he'd started to have hit singles, much to the annoyance of Jones and his management. Later that year, Decca producer Peter Sullivan saw Tommy Scott and the Senators performing in a club and directed them to manager Phil Solomon for a short-lived partnership. The group continued to play gigs at dance halls and working men's clubs in South Wales, and one night Jones was spotted by Gordon Mills, a London-based manager who also originally hailed from South Wales. Mills became Jones' manager, and took the young singer to London, renaming him to exploit the popularity of the Academy Award-winning 1963 film of the same name. Eventually, Mills brokered a deal with Decca Records, and Jones' first single 'Chills And Fever' was released in late 1964. It didn't chart, but the follow-up 'It's Not Unusual' became an international hit after offshore pirate radio station Radio Caroline promoted it. The following year was the most prominent of Jones's career, making him one of the most popular vocalists of the British Invasion, and in early 1965 'It's Not Unusual' reached the No. 1 spot in the UK charts, and the top ten in the United States. During 1965 Mills secured a number of film themes for Jones to record, including 'What's New Pussycat?' and the James Bond film 'Thunderball' in 1965, and 'Promise Her Anything' and the thriller 'Triple Cross' in 1966. Around this time his popularity began to slip somewhat, so Mills tried to reshape Jones' image into that of a crooner, recording material that appealed to a wider audience, such as the country hit 'Green, Green Grass Of Home'. The strategy worked, gaining him another No. 1 hit in the UK, and further chart successes on both sides of the Atlantic over the next few years, including the classic 'Delilah' in 1968. An imminent box-set will showcase all of Jones' Decca albums, and will be welcomed by fans, as his discography is a bit disjointed, with UK and US albums having different track-listings, and often his UK albums weren't released in the US, and vice-versa. There were also a number of singles and their b-sides which didn't appear on his UK albums, particularly the afore-mentioned film themes, and so in preparation for the box-set here is a collection of his non-album recordings from the first four years of his career, starting with that very first single in 1964, through to the start of his crooner phase with 'Green, Green Grass Of Home' and 'I'll Never Fall In Love Again'.   

 
Track listing

01 Chills And Fever (single 1964)   
02 Breathless (b-side of 'Chills And Fever')
03 To Wait For Love (Is To Waste Your Life Aaway) (b-side of 'It's Not Unusual' 1965)
04 I Tell The Sea (b-side of 'Once Upon A Time' 1965)
05 With These Hands (single 1965)  
06 Untrue (b-side of 'With These Hands')
07 What's New Pussycat? (single from the film 'What's New Pussycat?' 1965) 
08 One More Chance (b-side of 'What's New Pussycat?')
09 Thunderball (single from the film 'Thunderball' 1966) 
10 Promise Her Anything (single from the film 'Promise Her Anything' 1966) 
11 Stop Breaking My Heart (single 1966) 
12 Never Give Away Love (b-side of 'Stop Breaking My Heart')
13 Triple Cross (single from the film 'Triple Cross' 1966) 
14 Not Responsible (single 1966) 
15 What A Party (single 1966) 
16 City Girl (b-side of 'What A Party')
17 This And That (single 1966) 
18 If I Had You (b-side of 'Green, Green Grass Of Home' 1966)  
19 Ten Guitars (b-side of 'Detroit City' 1967)
20 Things I Wanna Do (b-side of 'I'll Never Fall in Love Again' 1967)
21 I'm Coming Home (single 1967)

Little Quirks - Devil's Ivy (2020)

Little Quirks are an Australian indie folk band formed on the Central Coast of New South Wales in 2015 by sisters, Abbey Toole (guitar, lead vocals) and Mia Toole (drums, vocals), and their cousin Jaymi Toole (mandolin, vocals), and in 2019 they were joined by Jaymi's older brother Alex on bass guitar. When they started, Jaymi was 17 and Abbey was 15, while Mia was just 11 year old, and they busked at food markets, playing cover versions of tracks by the Cranberries, Of Monsters and Men, and Vance Joy. In 2016 they issued their first EP 'Where We Hide', which was produced by Abbey and Mia's father Adam Toole, who himself had played in bands Adam's Apple and Sugarmoth, and a second EP 'Suzie Knows' appeared in 2017. I first became aware of them in 2018 when I found some of their tracks on Soundcloud, and was impressed enough to follow them and discover more of their music. In January 2020 they issued their third EP 'Cover My Eyes', and have now have more than enough music for an album, so as they haven't released one then I'll do it for them, with a record that includes the very best of the songs from their three releases to date, plus a recent single and three tracks that are only available on Soundcloud.

Track listing

01 Stay Awake 

02 Run Away  

03 About The World

04 Big Jet Plane

05 Unwinding  

06 Hold On 

07 I Told You So

08 Crumbled

09 Stand Still

10 Devil's Ivy

11 Where We Hide

12 Someone To Hold

13 Bury Our Bones

Johnny Winter - ...and on guitar (1977)

John Dawson Winter III was born in Beaumont, Texas, on February 23, 1944, two years before his brother Edgar made an apperance in 1946. They were encouraged in their musical pursuits by their father John Dawson Winter Jnr, who was also a musician who played saxophone and guitar and sang at churches and weddings, and they appeared on a local children's show with Johnny playing ukulele when he was 10 years old. His recording career began at the age of 15, when his band Johnny and the Jammers released 'School Day Blues' on a Houston record label, and after recording a single with Roy Head And The Traits, he released his first album 'The Progressive Blues Experiment' in 1968. His big break came at the end of that year, when Mike Bloomfield, whom he met and jammed with in Chicago, invited him to sing and play a song during a Bloomfield and Al Kooper concert at the Fillmore East in New York City. Representatives of Columbia Records were at the concert, and after Winter played and sang B.B. King's 'It's My Own Fault' to loud applause, they snapped him up with reportedly the largest advance in the history of the recording industry at that time — $600,000. Winter's first Columbia album 'Johnny Winter' was recorded and released in 1969, using the same backing musicians who played on 'The Progressive Blues Experiment', plus blues legend Willie Dixon on upright bass and Big Walter Horton on harmonica. With brother Edgar added as a full member of the group, Winter recorded his third album 'Second Winter' in Nashville in 1969, with the two-disc album having just three sides of music, with the fourth side being blank. In 1970 the original blues trio disbanded, after Edgar left to record a solo album 'Entrance', and to form Edgar Winter's White Trash, an R&B/jazz-rock group, with Johnny playing guitar on both 'Entrance', and White Trash's debut album. He then formed a new band with the remnants of The McCoys who had just split, nabbing guitarist Rick Derringer, bassist Randy Jo Hobbs, and Derringer's brother Randy Z on drums, with the original name of Johnny Winter And The McCoys being shortened to Johnny Winter And. 

Winter's momentum was throttled when he sank into heroin addiction during the Johnny Winter And days, but after seeking treatment for and recovering from the addiction, he returned to the music scene with the release of the prophetically titled 'Still Alive and Well', a basic blend of blues and hard rock, whose title track was written by Rick Derringer. In live performances, Winter often told the story about how, as a child, he dreamed of playing with the blues guitarist Muddy Waters, and in 1974 he got his chance, when renowned blues artists and their younger brethren came together to honor Waters with a concert featuring many blues classics, and which was the start of an admired TV series 'Soundstage', with 'Blues Summit In Chicago' being the first episode. In 1977 he took Waters into the studio to record 'Hard Again' for Blue Sky Records, a label set up by Winter's manager and distributed by Columbia, and it was this record that kick-started the resurgence of Waters' career, with this and their subsequent two albums together producing three Grammy Awards. Throughout his career Winter has helped out friends and relatives on their records, contributing to solo albums by Rick Derringer and former White Trash singer Jerry LaCroix, as well as playing with James Cotton in 1970, who returned the favour by contributing harmonica to the 'Hard Again' sessions seven years later.

 

Track listing

01 She Moves Me (from 'Taking Care Of Business' by James Cotton Blues Band 1970)
02 Tobacco Road (from 'Entrance' by Edgar Winter 1970)
03 I've Got News For You (from 'Edgar Winter's White Trash' by Edgar Winter's White Trash 1971)
04 Funny Boy (from 'The Second Coming' by Jerry LaCroix 1974)
05 Skyscraper Blues (from 'Spring Fever' by Rick Derringer 1975)
06 King Tut Strut (from 'Temple Of Birth' by Jeremy Steig 1975)
07 Reggae Rock & Roll (from 'Hit It Again' by Tornader 1977)
08 Mannish Boy (from 'Hard Again' by Muddy Waters 1977)

Mick Jagger & The Red Devils - Red Devil Blues (1993)

The Red Devils were a Los Angeles-based blues rock band who were active from 1988 to 1994. With their no-frills approach and singer Lester Butler's convincing Chicago-style blues harp, they were a popular fixture on the Los Angeles club scene and toured the U.S. and Europe. By early 1991, the Blue Shadows (as they were then known) came to the attention of producers Rick Rubin and George Drakoulias of Def American Recordings, and the band hoped that Drakoulias would work with them, but it became clear that Rubin wanted to produce their debut album. One of his first orders of business was a name change, so the Blue Shadows became the Red Devils, and then Rubin decided that their debut album was going to be a live album, a one-take, no-overdubs release, titled simply 'King King', for which he chose the songs and the cover art. The album was recorded at the King King club during three or four of their regular Monday-night performances in 1991, and featured a mix of songs by blues figures such as Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Howlin' Wolf, and Willie Dixon along with some band originals. Mick Jagger became interested in the Red Devils following a recommendation by Rick Rubin, who was producing Jagger's third solo album, and after scouting the band at King King, Jagger joined them on stage in May 1992 and performed Bo Diddley's 'Who Do You Love?' and Little Walter's version of 'Blues With A Feeling'. A month later, the Red Devils were invited to record some blues standards with Jagger, presumably for his upcoming solo album, and during one thirteen-hour recording session at Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood, Jagger and the band recorded thirteen songs, mostly completed in three or fewer takes, with no overdubs, as Jagger wanted to recreate the spontaneous, rough-and-tumble quality of his favorite early Chicago blues. When Jagger's 'Wandering Spirit' was released in 1993, it didn't include any of the songs recorded with the Red Devils, and the sessions passed into legend until bootlegs started to appears some years later. On listening to these recordings you can hear that Jagger and the band are having a ball, and while the production is rough and ready, that's what they wanted, and so it really is an authentic r'n'b/blues album by an artist trying to re-connect to his roots.

Track listing

01 Mean Old World
02 Blues With A Feeling
03 I Got My Eyes On You
04 Still A Fool
05 Checkin' Up On My Baby
06 One Way Out
07 Talk To Me Baby
08 Evil
09 Ain't Your Business
10 Shake 'M On Down
11 Somebody Loves Me
12 Dream Girl Blues
13 40 Days 40 Nights

Xero - Xero (1996)

Xero formed in 1996, and consisted of three Californian high school friends, Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson and Rob Bourdon. After graduating from high school, they began to take their musical interests more seriously, recruiting Joe Hahn, Dave "Phoenix" Farrell, and Mark Wakefield to perform in the band. Though limited in resources, they began recording and producing songs in Shinoda’s makeshift bedroom studio in 1996, resulting in a four-track demo tape, entitled 'Xero'. However, tensions and frustration within the band grew after they failed to land a record deal, and this prompted Wakefield, at that time the band's vocalist, to leave in search of other projects, followed by Farrell shortly afterwards. After spending a considerable time searching for Wakefield's replacement, Xero recruited Arizona vocalist Chester Bennington, formerly of post-grunge outfit Grey Daze, and the band then agreed to change their name from Xero to Hybrid Theory. The band still struggled to sign a record deal, and they were eventually helped by Jeff Blue, who had recommended Bennington to the group, and he managed to get them a deal with Warner Brothers as developing artists in 1999. As part of the deal, the label advised them to change their name to avoid confusion with the band Hybrid, and so after considering calling themselves Plear and Platinum Lotus Foundation, they finally settled on Linkin Park. The demo tape surfaced some years ago, with two different covers, one being the baby, and the other a shopping cart, but the shopping cart cover was scrapped after Shinoda and Hahn collaborated on the final artwork.

 

Track Listing

01 Rhinestone

02 Reading My Eyes

03 Fuse

04 Stick 'n' Move

Suggested by 'The Greatest Albums You'll Never Hear' by Bruno MacDonald

The Waterboys - Medicine Jack (1985)

'This Is the Sea' was released in 1985, and is the last of their 'Big Music' albums, with the band going back to their folk roots for their next release. Considered by critics to be the finest album of their early rock-oriented sound, it was the first Waterboys album to enter the UK charts, peaking at number 37. Steve Wickham made his Waterboys recording debut playing violin on 'The Pan Within' and subsequently joined the band, although this would be the last appearance of Karl Wallinger, who left the group after the album was released to form his own band, World Party. It was one of Scott's personal favourites, describing it as "the record on which I achieved all my youthful musical ambitions, the final, fully realised expression of the early Waterboys sound". After completing the album, Scott felt that he'd finished with that kind of music, achieving whatever it was he was trying to achieve, and didn't need to do it anymore, resulting in the complete change of direction for 'Fisherman's Blues'. As with all the band's previous records, much more material was recorded than was needed, and so we can make up yet another album just from the out-takes and the extended version of one of their b-sides, none of which deserved to be consigned to the vaults at the time.

Track listing

01 Beverley Penn (previously unreleased)

02 Medicine Jack (previously unreleased full length version)

03 Sleek White Schooner (previously unreleased)

04 Even The Trees Are Dancing (previously unreleased)

05 High Far Soon (b-side of re-issue of 'The Whole Of The Moon' 12" single 1991)

06 Then You Hold Me (previously unreleased)

07 Spirit (full length version on b-side of 'The Whole Of The Moon' 12" single 1985)

08 Towers Open Fire (previously unreleased)

09 Miracle (previously unreleased)

10 The Waves (previously unreleased)

11 Sweet Thing (Van Morrison) (previously unreleased) 

 and as a bonus here's a track that you can use as your answer-phone message

12 I Am Not Here

George Benson - ...and on guitar (1971)

George Washington Benson was born on March 22, 1943, and as a child prodigy he first played the ukulele in a corner drug store, for which he was paid a few dollars, then at the age of eight he was playing guitar in an unlicensed nightclub on Friday and Saturday nights, before the police closed the club down. At the age of nine he cut his first recordings, and of the four sides he recorded, two were released as the 1954 'She Makes Me Mad'/'It Should Have Been Me' single on RCA Victor in New York. He first came to prominence in the early 1960's, starting his professional career at age 19 by playing soul jazz with Jack McDuff, and at the age of 21 he recorded his first album as leader, with 'The New Boss Guitar' featuring McDuff on organ. He followed this with more albums as leader of The George Benson Quartet, with 'It's Uptown' in 1966 and 'The George Benson Cookbook' the following year. At the same time as having his own band, he was also playing in other groups, with such jazz luminaries as Hank Mobley, Jimmy Smith, Larry Young, and Stanley Turrentine, and he was even employed by Miles Davis to add guitar on 'Paraphernalia' from Davis' 1968 Columbia release 'Miles In The Sky'. Benson then signed with Creed Taylor's jazz label CTI Records, where he recorded several albums with some jazz heavyweights guesting on them, and his solo career really began to take off, culminating in him signing to Warner Brothers Records for his Grammy Award-winning breakthrough album 'Breezin''. This collection showcases some of his best work from the early 60's to early 70's on other artist's albums, and fans of his later smooth-jazz output might be astounded to hear what an excellent straight jazz guitarist he was in the early part of his career. It's a double disc set, as some of these tracks are quite lengthy, but I just couldn't bear to edit them down, so we end up with an hour and a half of superb mid-60's jazz.  

Track listing

Disc One
01 This Can't Be Love (from 'Cookin' Together' by Red Holloway 1964)
02 It Ain't Necessarily So (from 'Live!' by Brother Jack McDuff 1963)
03 Alligator Bogaloo (from 'Alligator Bogaloo' by Lou Donaldson 1967)
04 Sideman (from 'Finger-Lickin' Good' by Lonnie Smith 1967)
05 Music To Watch Girls By (from 'Jaki Byard With Strings!' by Jaki Byard 1968)
06 Paraphernalia (from 'Miles In The Sky' by Miles Davis 1968)
07 Up, Over, And Out (from 'Reach Out' by Hank Mobley 1968)
08 Some Of My Best Friends Are Blues (from 'The Boss' by Jimmy Smith 1968)

Disc Two
01 The Infant (from 'Heaven On Earth' by Larry Young 1969)
02 Mellow Blues (from 'Mellow Blues' by Willis Jackson 1970)
03 How Long Will It Be (from 'Crying Song' by Hubert Laws 1970) 
04 Sunshine Alley (from 'Sugar' by Stanley Turrentine 1970)
05 Straight Life (from 'Straight Life' by Freddie Hubbard 1971) 

Sandy Coast - And Their Name Is... Sandy Coast (1968)

Hans Vermeulen formed the band in 1961 as Sandy Coast Skiffle Group, with his bass-playing brother Jan, and on the latter's insistence they became Sandy Coast Rockers. The name was eventually abbreviated to Sandy Coast, and in 1965 they won a recording contract with Delta Records and released their debut-single 'Being In Love'. It wasn't until their fourth single, a 1966 cover-version of Vera Lynn's 'We'll Meet Again', that they achieved any chart success, and they followed that with 'I See Your Face Again', which broke the Dutch top 20 in the spring of 1968. The band soon traded beat for psychedelic rock, and 'Capital Punishment' became another top 20 hit in early 1969, the same year they signed to Page One Records for their next three singles, and their third album 'Shipwreck'. Despite now being regarded as the better album, it failed to be as successful as its predecessor 'From The Workshop', and when Page One folded following a row between Larry Page and Dick James, their contract was held to be still valid, and they were unable to issue any new material for two years. In 1971 they signed to Polydor and released 'True Love (That's A Wonder)' and 'Just A Friend', and in 1972 had a couple more chart hits with 'Just Two Little Creatures' and 'Summertrain' in 1972, but after one more album the band broke up in 1974. Although a lot of Dutch bands of the 60's and 70's concentrated on the singles market, Sandy Coast also put a lot of work into their albums, and their first three from 1968 to 1971 are all fine examples of psychedelic/progressive rock, and are rightly regarded as being some of the best Dutch rock music of the period. This collection charts their progress to making that first album in 1968, and comprises all their singles and b-sides from that first disc in 1965, up to their last non-album single in 1968. 

Track listing

01 Being In Love (single 1965)
02 I Want You For My Own (b-side of 'Being In Love')
03 Subject Of My Thoughts (Single 1966)
04 I'm A Fool (b-side of 'Subject Of My Thoughts)
05 That Girl Was Mine (single 1966)
06 I Lost A Dream (b-side of 'That Girl Was Mine')
07 We'll Meet Again (single 1966)
08 Coming Home (b-side of 'We'll Meet Again')
09 Sorry She's Mine (single 1966)
10 Make Me Belong To You (b-side of 'Sorry She's Mine')
11 A Girl Like You (single 1967)
12 Sing Before Breakfast (b-side of A Girl Like You')
13 Milk And Tranquilizers (single 1967)
14 I'm Working My Way Back To You (b-side of 'Milk And Tranquilizers')
15 And Her Name is... Amy (single 1967)
16 Anyway You Want Me (b-side of 'And Her Name Is... Amy')
17 I See Your Face Again (single 1968)
18 Goodbye Don't Cry (b-side of 'I See Your Face Again')