Monday, last day of August! I guess it's time to kick of the "Record of the Week" again, right?
The last weeks most playable record has been the Swedish prides GHOST latest release "Meliora".
The record have gotten plenty of spins, I could say that I have dig into it pretty deep this time. But I willnotbelong-windedin my review of "Meliora"
"Meliora" (Latin for the pursuit of something better) and that is something that is true in this case. "Meliora" is something better if you stand it side by side to its predecessor "Infestissumam". That was an good album, butnotas obvious as the début. "Meliora" is something else, here we have the songs, the melodies, the harmonies and dynamic. And everything falls perfectly in place in
structure of the tunes and creates a marvellous hard rock landscape of GHOST. Cannot morethan drop on my knees and wavethe hatand say, damnwhat goodyou are!
Some small things about "Meliora" that makes it almost a masterpiece!
First, the cover art of "Meliora" is amazing, it implies a grand-scale effort from GHOST, specially if you have the Vinyl version in your hand. From the hillside church of "Opus Eponymous" to the more adorning "Infestissumam" to something more powerful, this time we see a Kingdom which depicts Papa Emeritus III face between the buildings, an epic cover indeed.
Second, the song writing have increased to an higher level!
Third, the music, is well created with more accurate riffs, chorus, bridges and harmonies, it's alive!
With their third full-length, they've dropped the temporary
B.C. (‘Because of Copyright’ or, obviously, ‘Before Christ.’) And the album is an unforgettable ride that leaves you with goosebumps all over my crippled body. That these dudes have increased an level on all parts just adds a smile on my face when this record spins!
Small summary: Yes you need this Vinyl, it's a strangely refreshing sounding album, a bit popish but still have the contemporary
rock and metal that needs to keep it as a hard rock album. The high five tunes are "Spirit," "From the Pinnacle to the Pit," "He Is," "Mummy Dust," "Deus in Absentia."
Today's tune "From the Pinnacle to the Pit" is one of the most dirties tunes from the album but has the riffs, bass line and chorus that you can't sit still at all!
"Stir It Up" is a song composed by Bob Marley in 1967, written for his wife Rita, and first made popular by Johnny Nash. Nash's recording hit the top 15 in both Britain and America in 1973.
When Marley returned to Jamaica from the United States in 1967, The Wailers started their own label, Wail'n Soul'm records, and released their first independent single, "Freedom Time", backed with "Bend Down Low". "Nice Time", "Hypocrites", "Mellow Mood", "Thank You Lord", and "Stir It Up" were all recorded in the same year.
The label folded shortly after and Marley began writing for American singer Johnny Nash. On Nash's I Can See Clearly Now album, he used members of The Wailers and recorded several Marley songs: "Stir It Up," the follow-up single, "Comma Comma", "Guava jelly", and the Nash / Marley co-written ballad, "You Poured Sugar on Me". The track "(It Was) So Nice While It Lasted" received radio play.
"Stir It Up" was Marley's first successful song outside Jamaica. Another song written by Bob Marley, "I Shot The Sheriff", was made a hit by Eric Clapton on the album 461 Ocean Boulevard, July 1974. Marley's first "own" international hit, "No Woman No Cry", was released on the Bob Marley and the Wailers album Live!, December 1975.
The Nash vinyl, 45 version of the song has appeared in CD format only once - TimeLife's Sound of the Seventies: 1973 Take Two CD. It includes several audio tracks that are not on the album version (e.g. the prominent vibraslap percussion), and some recorded at different levels, brass and strings in particular, which give the song a more recognizable sound, as it was this version that received radio play during the time the song was a hit, and not the album version. This was the version to receive radio play until the CD version was released. Other mixes eventually made it to vinyl 45 pressings, but thus far the original 45 mix still has not been released in an official digital version, other than the TimeLife CD.
Today's tune "Stir It Up" is with Bob Marley "live" on The Bob Harris Old Grey Whistle Test 1973. The Wailers performed this song during their first trip to the UK, back in 1973.
Trivia:
In 1991, the song was covered by DREAD ZEPPELIN on their second album 5,000,000.
In 1993, the song was covered by THE BLACK SORROWS.
In 1993, the song was covered by Diana King for the 1993 movie Cool Runnings. The song also appears on the soundtrack album.
In 1993, the song was covered by Haddaway on his debut album Haddaway.
In 2009, THE FRATELLIS covered the song for the compilation Island 50: 50 Years of Island Records.
In 2009, the song was used by K'naan and J. Period in their mixtape The Messengers, which was a tribute to Bob Marley. The version is called "Fatima / Stir it up"
The Swedish Rock band SUPRALUNAR have released a brand new Video "Supralunar" (same name as the band).
The video was not planned at all, but got created of a coincidence. The band had a rather odd request to make a short gig in the early morning in a hotel room before 40 Germans during an hotel viewing and suddenly they had access to a perfect place and opportunity to create something.
Then the crazy idea pops up: "Maybe we can record a new video." And indeed, with good planning, persistence and the help of friends, we managed to record most of the video in just a few hours the evening before our gig in the hotel room, says Petri Tuulik.
The "Bag man" with somewhat magical powers that the band encountered in their first video "People Like Us" is returning in the video for "Supralunar" but this time he has climbed up the career and become the band's manager :)
Today's tune "Supralunar" taken from the bands debut album "A new hope". The video is made with a tongue in cheek, it is about three right kind of guys who are trying to live up to the myth of rock 'n roll, enjoy!
During this weekend is Popaganda festival up and running at Eriksdalsbadet here in Stockholm. Yes I'm there working :)
A few years ago the Swedish bearheads TEDDYBEARS was playing at Popaganda and gave a hell of a show. This years line up includes mostly bands I've never heard before. So it will be an interesting weekend and "Yes", the swim trunks are packed :)
TEDDYBEARS band formed in 1991, known for mixing pop, rock, hip-hop, electronica, reggae, punk and many other genres.
Today's tune is by TEDDYBEARS performing What's Your Problem? (ft. Baby Trish)
"Silence in the Snow" is the upcoming seventh studio album by American heavy metal band TRIVIUM, which will be released on October 2, 2015. It is the first album to feature new drummer Mat Madiro, who joined the band in May 2014.
The band premiered "Silence in the Snow" and "Blind Leading the Blind" on their headlining performance on Bloodstock Open Air. "Blind Leading the Blind" was later released as a single on YouTube August 13, 2015. On August 21, 2015 a music video was released on YouTube for "Blind Leading the Blind".
Trivium are an American heavy metal band from Orlando, Florida, formed in 2000. After getting signed to Roadrunner Records in 2004, the band has released six studio albums and nineteen singles. Their most recent album, Silence in the Snow, will be released on October 2, 2015. The band has sold over one million albums worldwide
Today's tune "Blind Leading the Blind" is taken from the upcoming album "Silence in the Snow"
Today is a great day, because it is one of my daughter's birthday.
Hey, this is your last single-digit birthday. You are getting so grown up — not only in age, but also in the way you act. I'm so proud of you. Happy 9th birthday!
This also means that she is the household's boss during her birthday, she decides to to a certain extent on what is to happen. Some things are already pre-ordered for this day, such as breakfast in bed, dinner will be her absolute top one and of course she should be allowed to choose a favourite song too. So today's tune is "Ronja's" favourite at the moment!
Insightful Jamaican artist OMI (Omar Samuel Pasley) is bringing his breakthrough story to the U.S., with the compelling sheen of “Cheerleader,” leading the way. The smash dance song has notched more than 90 million Spotify streams, topping iTunes in 14 territories, including Germany, Australia, Sweden and others (Top 10 in nearly 30 other markets). Released in 2012, a cleverly understated remix by German DJ/Producer Felix Jaehn helped power the global momentum building around the infectious track.
“Cheerleader” originally took off in Hawaii, but Omi was getting a larger sense of the song’s ‘stickiness’ where ever he performed it live. “People just gravitated to it, always remarking how it was their favorite.” Felix Jaehn’s 2014 remix added to the combustible nature of the track,” but by deftly imbuing acoustic gestures into the mix – conga, piano, trumpet – embellishing its unornamented feel. “I loved the mix even before it took off,” says Omi. “So calm; And unusual for a remix, it made you want to listen to the words, too.”
Today's tune "Cheerleader" (Felix Jaehn Remix) with OMI. Happy Birthday Ronja, Love U!
The German psychedelic rock band KADAVAR have released their third studio album "Berlin". This is the first album fully featuring new bassist Simon Bouteloup as founding members Lindemann and Bartelt continue to feature.
The bonus track on this album is a cover of Nico's Reich der Träume. The band will go on a European tour throughout November and December to promote the album.
The record was released on 21 August 2015 with a vinyl record of four versions.
After working for four months in the studio, the band finalized the production process of the new album on 1 June, according to their facebook page.
Drummer and producer Christoph "Tiger" Bartelt commented the following:
"About ten years ago, when we - independently of one another - moved to Berlin, we just wanted to break free from home and do something new. I thought it was comfortable, to blend in and just live from day to day. A lot of very long nights and so many completely different people at one place. Where there are opposites you can always ground yourself. We’re all different, come from different places but have managed to create something together we all like. I think the Berlin lifestyle has influenced our band very much and therefore fits perfectly as the album’s title."
The eleventh track of the record 'Into The Night' was chosen by pro skater Riley Hawk in his compilation album Riley Hawk: Northwest Blow Out EP presented by Scion AV.
The band, who were founded in Berlin, 2010, show attributes of both psychedelic rock and stoner rock in their music. They are considered retro rock due to their sound being described as similar to bands of the 70s hard rock/heavy metal era. KADAVAR currently consists of three members.
Today's tune "The Old Man" is taken from the album "Berlin"
"Allas Sak" is the upcoming album with the Swedish progressive rock band DUNGEN. The band is based in Stockholm. Often classified as progg or psychedelic rock, DUNGEN is also influenced by Swedish (and other) folk music, classic rock, progressive rock, garage rock and alternative rock.
"Allas Sak" (It’s a short phrase with enormous implications). Those two Swedish words translate loosely into English as “everyone’s thing” or maybe “anyone’s thing.” They not only provide the title for DUNGENs latest collection of sophisticated psychedelic rock, but explains how the band works creatively and collaboratively.
“I was told by a friend once that as a songwriter and as a musical artist, you have to understand that as soon as the music leaves your body, it is no longer strictly yours,” explains Gustav Ejstes, DUNGENs mastermind and main songwriter. “The listener also owns it and filters it through their personality, their thoughts and feelings.”
In other words, the music is everyone’s thing. It belongs to the band and to whoever hears it, which means that everyone is empowered to decipher the Swedish-language lyrics for themselves, to locate their own stories in the magisterial instrumental jams, to make all of this mean whatever they need it to mean. For DUNGEN, this communion between artist and audience is a beautiful and necessary process that makes the music mean more, not less. It becomes, in a sense, infinite. “These songs are my everyday experiences, my thoughts and stories from the life I live,” says Ejstes. “I hope people can create their own stories around the music and maybe we can make music together, the listener and I.”
Ejstes has been making music—at first for himself, then eventually and inevitably for all of us—for nearly twenty years. Growing up in rural Sweden, he became obsessed with hip-hop and sampling. Digging through crates and searching for obscure source material provided him with an informal education in ‘60s pop and psychedelia, and soon he learned to play the bits and pieces he was sampling. He took up guitar and bass, drums and keyboard and even flute, then took to his grandmother’s basement to put it all on tape.
When Ejstes recorded his first album, he released it in 2001 under the name DUNGEN, which means “The Grove”— a nod to his village upbringing or perhaps a deeper reference to American folk songs like “Shady Grove.” While his music has routinely garnered comparisons to acts like Love, Pink Floyd, the Electric Prunes, and Os Mutantes, he has always emphasized a strong sense of songcraft. The music has deep roots in history, but it blooms in the present.
With 2004’s breakout Ta Det Lugnt Dungen garnered an avid fanbase outside of Scandinavia. Pitchfork lauded the album with a 9.3 and asserted that Ejstes’s “songs are painstakingly arranged with a sense of depth, gradations, and tonal three-dimensionality redolent of something as off the charts as Pet Sounds.” Only on the road did Dungen blossom into a full band, with a rotation of musicians joining Ejstes onstage and eventually coalescing into a fully democratic band that includes Reine Fiske on guitar, Mattias Gustavsson on bass, and Johan Holmegard on drums. Starting with 2007’s Tio Bitar and 2009’s 4, the band members helped Ejstes realize his own vision while adding flourishes of their own. As a result, DUNGEN grew into something bigger and more formidable: one of the best and most consistently inventive psych rock bands in the world.
At the height of their powers, however, the band took a step back.
It’s been five years since the last DUNGEN album, 2010’s Skit I Allt, which is by far the longest interval between releases for a band that proved especially prolific and inspired during the 2000s. “We have all been away during this period for different reasons, playing music in different projects,” says Ejstes. “I have been writing songs in the meantime, so the actual recording process has been pretty short.” During the interim, several members of the band released albums as the Amazing, including 2012’s Gentle Stream and 2015’s Picture You. Ejstes himself co-founded the Swedish supergroup AMASON, which includes members of IDIOT WIND, LITTLE MAJORETTE and MIIKE SNOW. They released their debut, Sky City, earlier this year.
Allas Sak is about everyday matters: family, friends, the fine texture of life. Common but never mundane, these subjects anchor the music in the here and now, while the music lends a certain grandeur to ordinary moments. “Lyrics are very important to me,” says Ejstes. “We know a lot of people who don’t speak Swedish who love the music anyway. Music comes first every time. I think it could be wordless if the moods in the music take you somewhere, but often the melodies are attached to words that came up the first time they were played.”
A taste from the upcoming album 'Allas Sak' out Sept 25 (Worldwide) is the otherworldly instrumental “Franks Kaktus”.
Upcoming Tourdates:
9-19 Paris, FR @ Levitation France
10-12 Chicago, IL @ Schuba's
10-14 Boston, MA @ Great Scott (w/ Quilt)
10-15 Brooklyn, NY @ Baby's All Right (w/ Quilt)
10-16 Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle (w/ Quilt)
10-17 Washington, DC @ DC9 (w/ Quilt)
10-20 Seattle, WA @ Barboza
10-21 Portland, OR @ Bunk Bar
10-23 San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
10-24 Santa Ana, CA @ Beach Goth 4
10-25 Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
11-7 Trondheim, NO @ Byscenen
11-8 Bergen, NO @ Ole Bull Scene
11-9 Stavanger, NO @ Folken
11-11 Helsinki, FI @ Tavastia
11-12 Oslo, NO @ Blaa
11-13 Gothenburg, SE @ Storan
11-14 Gävle, SE @ Konserthuset
11-15 Stockholm, SE @ Södra teatern
11-18 Århus, DK @ Atlas
11-19 Copenhagen, DK @ Lille Vega
11-20 Malmö, SE @ Victoriateatern
11-21 Malmö, SE @ Victoriateatern
11-27 Uppsala, SE @ Katalin
"Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" is a country music song first recorded by Ed Bruce, written by him and wife Patsy Bruce. His version of the song appears on his 1976 self-titled album for United Artists Records. In late 1975–early 1976, Bruce's rendition of the song went to number 15 on the Hot Country Singles charts.
Members of the Western Writers of America chose the song as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
The narrator warns mothers not to let their children become cowboys because of the tough and busy life of cowboy culture.
Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson covered the song on their 1978 duet album Waylon & Willie. This rendition peaked at No. 1 in March 1978, spending four weeks atop the country music charts. It also won the 1979 Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Also in 1979, Nelson's version was featured in the film The Electric Horseman with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. This version was covered by Alvin and the Chipmunks as "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Chipmunks" for their 1981 album Urban Chipmunk. It is also featured in the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas video game soundtrack, on the fictitious radio station K-Rose, and in a 2015 TV commercial for the Volkswagen Passat.
In 1994, country music group Gibson/Miller Band recorded a cover version on its album Red, White and Blue Collar. This version peaked at #49 on the Hot Country Songs chart, and was featured in the soundtrack for the movie The Cowboy Way. It also appeared on the band's second and final studio album, Red, White and Blue Collar.
Todays tune is with "Willie Nelson & Waylon Jennings" perform "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" at Farm Aid II in Austin, Texas on July 4, 1986. The song was Released as a 7" single on November 15, 1975 and the B-side was "It's Not What She's Done (It's What You Didn't Do)".
The Sumerian thrashing Mesopotamian black metal act MELECHESH from Jerusalem and the Netherlands released their 6th album "Enki" earlier this year, an album that I haven't really got time to spin around, hopefully soon, anyway I did a quick listen to it on Spotify and I really liked what I heard, so why not take one of their tunes today.
MELECHESH is an ethnically Assyrian and Armenian black metal and Mizrahi metal band that originated in Jerusalem, Israel and is currently based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Ashmedi started the band as a solo project in 1993. In the following year, guitarist Moloch and drummer Lord Curse were added to the line-up. The band's goal was to create a type of black metal incorporating extensive Middle Eastern influences mainly based on Assyrian (Mesopotamian) and occult themes (both musically and lyrically); the band invented the title "Mesopotamian metal" or "Sumerian Black Thrashing Metal" to best describe their type of metal.
Todays tune "Multiple Truths" was the first single release from "Enki", enjoy!
Listen to ”Ghost - Cirice" on Spotify here!
