THE MONKEES @ 55

 

Celebrating its 55th anniversary today, The Monkees debut album was released on October 10th, 1966. While it may have been a "manufactured image" at this time; a construct built for a fictional TV world, that didn't mean there weren't true creative talents working to put it all together.

First and foremost, there was the powerhouse duo of Boyce & Hart, who wrote most of the songs and provided their house band to perform a good chunk of the music. They forged a distinct, slicked up, jangling garage rock style that would be the foundation of The Monkees success. Their contribution of Last Train to Clarksville proved to be chart topping gold, even though it stealthily smuggled in an anti war message.

The album also featured songs from the likes of David Gates, Gerry Goffin and Carole King. And even though the band themselves were only ever intended to contribute vocals to the songs, Michael Nesmith was allowed to contribute a couple of his own compositions, which he co-produced at his own recording session. When it wasn't the Boyce & Hart boys playing the music, the legendary Wrecking Crew musicians were there to round out the album.

As a result, regardless of any criticisms of them being the "pre-fab four", the combination of expert musicians, inspired songwriters and the lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry and personalities of the Monkees themselves added up to a sum which has proven itself against the unforgiving tides of time. This album still holds its charms and power and has rightfully earned its place in the pantheon of classic pop music.

JOY DIVISION - STILL @ 40

 

Released 40 years ago today, on October 8th, 1981, Joy Division’s 3rd album, Still, would function as the headstone upon the tomb of this doomed, yet groundbreaking band after the tragic suicide of its lead singer, Ian Curtis.

The double disc set contained mostly studio outtakes from the Unknown Pleasures and Closer sessions on disc one, while the second disc contained the group’s final UK live performance. Its purpose was partly intended to thwart bootleggers looking to cash in on the band’s demise and infamy, but it also offered the opportunity to corral all the disparate bits of studio leftovers together into a convenient package for the band’s eager fans. Though the quality of the songs might not quite match up to the perfection of those contained on their prior albums & singles, there’s regardless some great songs to be found on the album, and some rarities for good measure.

The initial release of the album was elegantly packaged in a cloth hessian grey cover bound by a white silk ribbon, which gave it a kind of “memorial” gravitas as the final statement from the group after its termination following the death of Curtis. It certainly continued the visual aesthetic established by the group’s previous releases on Factory and took it to a natural extreme befitting of the somber nature of its existence. A subsequent CD reissue added a bonus disc of live and soundcheck recordings.

HAWKWIND - X IN SEARCH OF SPACE @ 50

 

Marking a half century since its release on October 8th, 1971 is the sophomore album by space rock legends, Hawkwind, with their first full blown excursion into the depths of the void, X In Search of Space.

While the album is not a concept album in the strict sense of offering a coherent narrative or theme for all the songs, the album’s elaborate die-cut fold out cover and accompanying “log” booklet ultimately imparted a lot of its conceptual weight. These were developed by cover artist, Barney Bubbles & poet Bob Calvert with input from sci-fi author, Michael Moorcock. Collectively, they go a long way in establishing a mythology around the group. Where their debut had hinted at these inclinations, their second album made their otherworldly predilections explicit. The use of fictional accounts of space missions and tales of lost civilizations added a sense of wonder and mystery to the group.

Recording of the album initially began at George Martin’s Air Studios, but that only lasted a week. The sessions were terminated after the band failed to get much done in terms of recording and the studio techs complained that friends of the band had broken into George’s liquor cabinet and pinched all his booze. There were also reports that the engineers found they’d been spiked with LSD, so things ended abruptly at that facility. From there, they were bundled off to Olympic Studios to do the rest of the album under a rather hurried schedule, no doubt with the hopes that a fast pace would keep them out of trouble.

The pace of production didn’t seem to hurt the material, however as the band managed to produce a solid album that would firmly set their course for their progress throughout the next few years. The sound became rooted in their driving rhythm section, which enabled the other players to spin off into the far reaches of improvisational acrobatics while being able to anchor themselves to the band’s relentless grooves. Taking a cue from “Krautrock” and its development of the “motorik” beat, the band were moving much closer to these new structures than traditional blues based rock.

Critical reception for the album was widely positive with Melody Maker comparing them to some of their German contemporaries saying that, while the Germans were more advanced on some musical fronts, Hawkwind’s use of electronics was without precedent. Gonzo reviewer, Lester Bangs, called it "monotone jammings with hypnotic rhythms and solos unraveling off into... well, space. The synthesizers warble, woof and scream and gurgle like barfing computers, the drums pound, and the singers chant Unknown Tongue rebops." Its legacy has placed it onto the platform of offering a definitive space rock statement, making it a foundation stone for the stoned who would trip out to its far-flung, far-out excursions.

Later CD & digital reissues added the seminal Silver Machine single featuring Lemmy Kilmister to the album to round out its greatness!

TOM TOM CLUB @ 40

 

Released 40 years ago this month, the Tom Tom Club’s eponymous debut set the world’s toes tapping in October of 1981. Conceived as a pressure release value by married Talking Heads rhythm section, Tina Weymouth (bass) and Chris Franz (drums), Tom Tom Club was concocted while on holiday in the Bahamas. With work on Talking Heads being so intense and demanding, the need for a lighter side project put the focus on the fun and joy of making music. Aside from Tina & Chris forming the rhythmic core of the group, the rest was filled out with a loose association of players and studio techs. Featured among these were guitarists Adrian Belew & Monte Brown, keyboardist Tyrone Downie, percussionist Uziah "Sticky" Thompson and Weymouth sisters Lani, Laura & Loric filling in the backing vocals.

The album doesn’t stray too far away from the funky dance territory staked out by Talking Heads, but goes for a much more playful, less academic disposition, something which caused Heads’ main man, David Byrne, to be somewhat dismissive of the project. While there are times when its “cuteness” verges on cloying, the album boasts one of the most infectious funk grooves ever committed to vinyl in the form of Genius of Love. Not only is the groove unstoppable, but Adrian Belew’s warped guitar solo is one of the strangest mutations of the instrument I’ve ever heard. The extended mix also served to bring some dub production to the radio top 40 charts! The single was extremely popular in both the US and UK, though it didn’t quite hit the top slot, but its impact would end up going far beyond its original form as its groove would be sampled and recreated over and over by rap, soul & R&B artists for generations after its release.

PATTI SMITH GROUP - RADIO ETHIOPIA @ 45

 

Released in October of 1976, Patti Smith Group’s sophomore studio album, Radio Ethiopia, is celebrating its 45th anniversary this month. Caught on the horns of the dilemma of the desire for commercial success vs the drive for raw creative expression, the album landed with a thud, critically, upon its release.

At the time of Smith’s emergence from the NYC CBGB’s scene, the idea of “punk” was nowhere near codified into the cultural cliche it would become within the next couple of years. As such, what was happening in this community and why was still being grappled with. PSG had come out of the gate with a strong debut in Horses the year before, but it had no momentum from the music scene to drive it and Smith was looking for some commercial validation at the time of working on her second album. To this end, she enlisted the help of producer, Jack Douglas, to help give the group some polish and professionalism. They’d been developing their abilities as musicians, but this can be a double-edged sword for artists working on the fringes of an emerging scene. The raw energies of their debut became muted by refined production values and restrained performances. The wild abandon of their premier was softened and clarified and that clarity can sometimes sap the energy out of an artist.

Then there’s the contradiction of putting something like the album’s polarizing title track in the midst of all these efforts at commercialization. It starts off innocent enough, but eventually works into a dizzying vortex of of noise and chaos that many considered too contrived an attempt to annoy. The song’s live presentation during their shows of the time was often considered the “downer” portion of the show. Whether it’s pretense or sincerity is a bit cloudy, but it does raise questions if not eyebrows.

Though the group took some pretty hard knocks for the album when it came out, opinions have softened towards it over time. I find it has some moments worth hearing on it, though it’s probably never gonna be my favorite album by Patti & the gang. It certainly didn’t deserve the pounding it got back then, but those where the days when rock critics made their name by seeing who could be the bigger asshole. Sometimes it was amusing, but they shit on a lot of good stuff while trying to be “cool” back then.

CAN - FLOW MOTION @ 45

 

Released in October of 1976, CAN’s seventh studio album, Flow Motion, is celebrating its 45th anniversary this month. It’s an album that continued the major shift in the way CAN created in the studio, something started with their previous LP, Landed, and was rather divisive among the group’s fans at the time of its release.

CAN always recorded in their own studios, Inner Space, but their equipment drove them to compose in a mostly “live” improvised manner for their early albums as they lacked the ability to do extensive multi-tracking. The arrival of a 16 channel recording system in 1975 meant that they could work in an entirely different manner than they had before and this was part of what drove them to pursue what some would consider more accessible music as the ability to consider and arrange songs usurped the improvisational approach of earlier works. As they came to grips with the possibilities of their new tools, they became interested in working with structures like reggae and disco inspired rhythms, a move that would prove somewhat unpopular with some.

The opening cut from the album, I Want More, and it’s reprisal on the side A closing track, And More, build on a shuffling disco beat with the opening track becoming something of a hit single in the UK, one of CAN's biggest ever. It even scored them a slot on Top Of the Pops, which was great for exposure, but hardcore fans of the band weren’t into seeing them lip-syncing and dancing on the BBC and a lot of them started to write the band off as sell-outs. But in retrospect, the fact is that it’s simply a damn good little song that deserved the popularity it garnered and, once people got off their “high horses” and gave it a chance, they came to recognize its charms.

Much of the rest of the album plays around with variations on reggae rhythms, with Cascade Waltz coming up with the ingenious idea of fusing a reggae shuffle into a 3/4 time signature. While there’s a lot of accessible, compact music on the album, it’s not without its darker turns as is the case with the thundering percussion, like rolling storm clouds, on Smoke (E.F.S. No. 59), or the sprawling strangeness of the album’s ten minute plus closing title track. All in, the balance between so-called “mainstream” dalliances and CAN’s usual weirdness, something that is never truly absent from any of their albums, add up to a pretty great listen. Of their late ‘70s releases, it’s one of my favorites and one of the most thoroughly listenable from this era.

THROBBING GRISTLE - GREATEST HITS @ 40

 

Forty years ago this month, in October of 1981, Throbbing Gristle released the capstone of their brief yet confrontational career, Greatest Hits - Entertainment Though Pain. It’s a compilation of some of their most notorious music, including some non-album singles, intended to offer the curious a convenient though subversive introduction to these “wreckers of civilization”.

The album, like 20 Jazz Funk Greats, trades on deception right on its cover, while also paying tribute to one of the band’s most surprising influences, Martin Deny, who’s music often closed TG’s live performances and served as inspiration for more than one composition. The front is a direct parody of his ‘50s Exotica covers with Cosey filling in as the model with bamboo curtains draped in the background. The back cover offers the band photo, again all looking super friendly and fun, just like 20-JFG. This image sits next to a hype essay courtesy of Claude Bessy, who expounds upon the mysteries and marvels of our heroes. It’s a perversely rambling attempt to make sense of the band’s career in the wake of the recent “termination” of their “mission”. It’s suitably obtuse and does a good job of elucidating at the same time as intensifying their mystique.

Inside, the album does its best to touch all the bases covered over the course of the band’s 5 years of activity. It’s mostly kept to the more accessible tracks like Hot On the Heels of Love, but you get a bit of the edge thrown in for good measure with tracks like Subhuman & Hamburger Lady. Ultimately, it does what it says on the tin and gives the novice TG listener a handy gateway into their demented and demanding world with just enough cushion to soften the harder blows while twigging the imaginations of the adventurous to want to poke around for something more.