Do you ever wonder how we process and price so much vinyl at Jive Time? Child labour! Here’s our youngest and hardest-working intern, Finneas, busy sorting the wheat from the chaff in our warehouse. (Apparently Emmylou Harris doesn’t make it the cut this time.) Finneas is also the owner’s nephew proving that a keen nose for vinyl runs in the family.
“Diamond Head” is more easily compared to Brian Eno’s albums than those of Roxy Music. The eclectic and adventurous sound is marvelously produced and recorded with a great line-up of musicians and singers and features two of Eno’s best ever vocal performances on ‘Big Day’ and ‘Miss Shapiro’ (both of which regularly run in little loops inside my head at the unlikeliest of moments). Then there is a fine performance by John (just out of King Crimson) Wetton on ‘Same Time Next Week’ – complete with Fripp-esque guitar work and Crimson-style Mellotron colorings. A lost classic? Definitely. This is one of the albums I would not want to be without on a desert island . Further proof that the great music of the seventies has not been entirely lost in the digital age. –Reeves
Ground Zero for Powerpop on this side of the Atlantic started with the Raspberries debut album. After the initial wave of British Invasion bands faded, American rock fans moved onto the music of the “Summer of Love”, with their long psychedelic jams and politico-leaning lyrics. But on the shores of Lake Erie, Eric Carmen and Wally Bryson still believed in the power and the spirit of supremely crafted pop songs packed with the excitement of their musical idols – The Beatles, The Hollies, The Who and the Small Faces. From the opening chords of their mega-hit ‘Go All the Way’, Bryson’s magnificent blistering guitar work, Carmen’s raw Steve Marriott styled singing, and Jim Bonfanti`s wild approximation of Keith Moon, served notice that the 3-minute power chord song was alive and well.
“Go All The Way” opens the album. The song speaks for itself in both spirit and meaning. “Come Around and See Me” with its Latin music-accent and lovely acoustic guitar, showcases a band loose enough in its self-impressed mod guitar band status, that “the guys” toss around lines like “Que Pasa, Baby” just for fun at the song’s end. Further showing off their influences, ‘I Saw the Light’ and ‘Waiting’ are fine slices of baroque rock, ala, The Left Banke. Side two’s “I Can Remember” offers an eight-minute melody in the mold of early Bee Gees. Here, Eric gives us the first sampling of his classical music training. It starts off as a gorgeous ballad, just Eric’s beautifully sweet voice and piano, then progresses into an up-tempo rocker, full of chord changes and the band’s trademark, multi-part harmonies.
Nearly 40 years later, “Raspberries” has stood the test of time in its stature and place in rock annuals. Listen to it again or for the first time, I think you’ll agree as well. –Ed
Funk’s advent was the result of a convergence of many musical events, a “perfect storm” precipitated by the coalescing of all the major postwar African-American musical forms, among them jazz, blues, r&b, and gospel. Like many other innovations in American popular music, it came into its own in the ’60s. Its evolution can be heard in the output of musicians from just about every major US city, but Detroit, Philadelphia, Memphis, and New Orleans (see below) were the real hotbeds of activity. But if there is one individual who can be seen as the form’s prime architect, it’s a man from Macon, Georgia by the name of James Brown. Accentuating rhythm above all else, and essentially making his backing band, the Famous Flames, a massive percussion instrument, the Godfather laid the groundwork for The Groove. This proto-Funk sound exists in some shape or form on just about all of his King Records releases from Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag onwards. But many of his peers were also throwing down. Here’s a short list.
1. The Bar-Kays Soul Finger (1967) Though there are other great tunes in this assortment of instrumentals, its title track, with its thumping bass and blasting horns, is deservedly the standout. Even the record’s unavoidable association with one of the greatest tragedies in Soul music history—it’s the only one the original lineup recorded before three of its members perished with Otis Redding in a plane crash—can’t detract from its joyous groove.
2. Sly and the Family Stone Dance to the Music (1968) This sophomore effort by the Bay Area psychedelic soulsters is where they really find their footing. Much more of a group effort than Sly’s later work, its melding of fuzzed-out guitar, stinging brass, life-affirming vocals, and the stellar basswork of one of funk’s greatest innovators, Larry Graham, ushered in a new era.
3. The Meters (1969) – No other city is as deserving of the title “The Cradle of Funk” as New Orleans. In the late ’60s, literally hundreds of artists in that city cooked up potent stews of tight grooves and fat beats, and the Meters were the undisputed head chefs. Their Allen Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn-produced debut features a smoking collection of instrumentals, including the original version of “Cissy Strut”, now a Funk standard.
4. Eddie Bo and the Soul Finders The Hook and Sling (1997) Elsewhere in the Crescent City, this prolific national treasure, whose output spanned from the early 50s to just a few months before his death in 2009, unleashed one of early Funk’s catchiest numbers, “The Hook and Sling”—a sizable hit on the R&B charts in 1969. Every bit as much of an innovator as his peers, Bo unfortunately remained in their shadows for most of his career. Even stranger, he never managed to cut a full-length LP during this, his most important, period. This 1997 compilation serves as the next best thing.
5. Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band Express Yourself (1970) Seminal release by Charles Wright and the best incarnation of the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. [Read full review here!]
Further listening: Let’s face it: Funk is really a singles medium. It’s an unfortunate fact that many records from its golden era were hastily thrown together affairs. A typical LP might contain one or two amazing tracks scattered amongst some lackluster mid-tempo numbers and cheesy ballads. (Yes, we’re talking about you, James Brown!) This is where one can be thankful for the modern miracle called the compilation. The music industry initially was slow to recognize it as a genre fit for this type of (re)packaging, but by the mid-90s stylishly packaged funk compilations were a common sight in even mainstream record stores. Many of these are riddled with overplayed hits, so one is advised to dig deep. The Brits seem to do them the best. The London-based Soul Jazz Records sets the gold standard for comps and reissues. Their three volume New Orleans Funk series is an essential intro to some of the best music from Funk’s early days. Similarly, BGP’s Superfunk series is uniformly great. –Richard P
I love unlikely combinations in musical settings. I also love risks and artists who refuse to be pigeonholed. Nothing is more evident of this than on this improv workout from 1986: guitarist Pat Metheny and the innovative saxophonist/free jazz veteran Ornette Coleman’s Song X. Backed by two other Jazz legends, drummer Jack DeJohnette and bassist Charlie Haden, along with Coleman’s son, Denardo on Percussion, comes a free jazz gem that seemed to come from nowhere. Metheny shocked all of his defectors who loathe his smooth jazz tendencies on this record. At the time Song X was released, he was enjoying massive success with The Pat Metheny Group, filling venues and gaining extensive airplay with their highly accessible brand of fusion. Then comes this curve ball. He had always had an outspoken admiration for Ornette Coleman but the combination of the two in a musical setting still was a bit bizarre – but effective.
The interplay between Metheny and Coleman is unbelievably natural with Metheny playing abstract guitar lines perfectly intertwined with Coleman’s angular alto. Jack DeJohnette’s frantic (but cohesive) drumming is in fine form, he manages to squeeze everything out of his kit on this record, and then some. Bassist Charlie Haden is no stranger to this idiom (he’s been playing alongside Coleman since the late fifties) and sits in perfectly, providing a pulse all his own. Coleman’s son Denardo adds some esoteric percussion textures as well. It even stays innovative and fresh when Metheny picks up his dreaded guitar synth on one track. Song X isn’t just another set by a jazz super group, this record manages to do what all classic free jazz records have done before and after: be accessible, yet challenging, without being contrived. There is nothing trivial about this record. It’s a swinging set of avant-garde goodness by some of the best (and one with some new found street-cred) in the business. These guys dug playing on this session and you can feel the inspiration in the music. –ECM Tim
You’ve been to our large Clearance Annex in the Fremont Vintage Mall – now check out our new “Clearance-Clearance” annex in Edmonds! Find approximately 5,000 additional bargain priced LPs (most 50¢-$2) inside the Aurora Antique Pavilion. You probably won’t find any super rare or collectible vinyl here, but lots of mainstream classic rock, jazz, country, popular, soundtracks, and more. New records added weekly! The mall hours are Mon-Fri: 10-7, Sat: 10-6, and Sun: 11-6.
The Aurora Antique Pavilion is located at 24111 Highway 99, Edmonds, WA 98026. (above the Burlington Coat Factory.) We’re in the far back right, space #35.
We’ve turned a few of our favorite iconic album covers into iPhone wallpaper! Click here to view all of the designs in actual size, email yourself the design you choose and save it to your photo library. (Or navigate to this page on your iPhone and save the image directly.) Then select it in your wallpaper settings and voila! Watch this blog for more iPhone wallpaper designs to come!
You Know Who You Are is an irresistible slab of glittery teen lust laid to wax, the castrato vocals of ex-Sweeney Todd singer Nick Gilder the perfect foil for detailing the blue movie diary “Rated X,” the squealing rockshow frenzy of “Backstreet Noise,” and Sunset sleaze of Sweeny Todd cuts “Roxy Roller” and “Tantalize.” Overall You Know Who You Are feels like the aural equivalent of a worn issue of Star, crammed front-to-back with trashy, tasteless pop that buzzes with electric ecstasy of Sweet and steamy glam grooves of classic T-Rex. –Ben
Future Holden Caufields, venturing out into the big bad city just two decades later, would have no need to feel so alienated — not with Central Park Be-Ins to take part in and Terry Riley’s A Rainbow In Curved Air providing the imaginary soundtrack. Riley’s LP – produced in ’67 once again by Music Of Our Time overseer David Berhman- is the most blatantly pop-friendly of all experimental albums up until Philip Glass’s Glassworks (the latter designed for an upscale yuppie audience which didn’t exist at the height of the Vietnam war.) No such compromises on Riley’s part–his loose, drony improvisations, heard here in gloriously overdubbed three dimensions, appealed to eager, young ears opened up by the raga craze and all sorts of other Eastern “space.” And despite his benign, hippie veneer, the composer didn’t neglect the dark side of Aquarius either, as the ominous psychedelic swirl of “Poppy Nogood & The Phantom Band,” with its dense overlay of reeds, organ and tape loops, demonstrates ad infinitum. –SS
Excluding the classic rock radio staple “Eminence Front” from 1982’s “It’s Hard,” the eighties weren’t terribly kind to The Who. At the time of “Face Dances” release, fans were still mourning the loss of Keith Moon while punk and emerging new wave were stealing press space and radio air-waves. It’s difficult to imagine now how proto-punkers like The Who couldn’t have easily coexisted alongside The Clash, but at the time they were considered almost polar opposites. (Long time Seattleites might remember both camp’s negative reaction at that disastrous double bill in the Kingdome in ’82). Listening now, though, and judged on it’s own merits, “Face Dances” is surprisingly enjoyable and this underdog of an LP finds its way onto my turntable and ipod more often than “Who’s Next.” “Face Dances” is definitely not in league with the aforementioned classic but neither has it been played to death for the last twenty-five years. Also, I now prefer a introspective Pete Townshend even if Roger Daltry still delivers his words with all the gusto of “Baba O’Riley.” For anyone who’s written this one off, pick up the next 99¢ copy you see and give it a fresh listen the way you might approach a Townshend or Entwistle LP. Not only does it contain some of Townshend’s finest (Don’t Let Go The Coat) and oddest lyrical moments (Did You Steal My Money, Cache Cache), it features the “quiet” Entwistle’s least quiet moment, “The Quiet One” along with everyone’s favorite guilty Who-pleasure, “You Better You Bet” and the album closer’s lost gem, “Another Tricky Day.” –David
At last! Jive Time logo stickers are here! Slap one of these puppies on your car bumper, snow board or guitar case and everyone will know you have great taste in music (and record stores). Our stickers are printed on quality vinyl with a glossy protective layer and measure 4″ in diameter. Best of all, they’re FREE with purchase at Jive Time – just ask!
Update: For those of you in other parts of the country, you can now order a Jive Time sticker/button combo in our new online merchandise store.
