Pendulum

Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Pendulum" (1970) - Fantasy Records

Hello Friends,

Summer's here kids.  BBQs, bikinis & late night keggers at the beach!  Of course, we've gotta have some Creedence Clearwater Revival on the turntable! 

Pendulum would be the band's sixth studio record (within two years!) and their last great record.  (Their last official studio release would be 1972's Mardi Gras, but the train had long left the station!)  From 1968 to 1970 it was quite a run, putting them in the conversation for greatest American band of all time!  (Sorry Hanson!)

Things get kicked off with the 6+ minute ass-kicking jam of "Pagan Baby".  Amazing!

That's followed by two funky, rootsy rockers, "Sailor's Lament" & "Chameleon", both of which feature horn-sections provided by singer-guitarist John Fogerty himself!

The next song is the classic ballad, "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?" which is Fogerty's melancholic take on either The Viet Nam War, the idealism of the 60's quickly fading into the cold cynicism of the 70's, or about mounting tensions within the group itself.  Or maybe its just about the weather.  Sometimes the simplest answers are the best answers, and most eloquent!

And speaking of being sad & eloquent in the rain, the amazing "(Wish I Could) Hideaway" with its blistering organ (again courtesy of Fogerty) closes out an amazing Side One.

Maybe the album is called Pendulum because in the band's eyes things were literally swinging the other way.  They did so much in such a short amount of time that maybe by 1970 their fame and fortunes were catching up with them and wearing them down. Everyone in the band (except John's brother Tom, who was a few years older) was only around 25 by the time this album came out.  I don't know about you kids, but I was a real fuck-up at 25.  I can't imagine how intolerable, intoxicated & jaded I would have been if I was fronting one of the biggest and most successful rock bands in the country at that ripe age!  Give them credit for being able to stand-up, let alone for writing some unforgettable rock & roll tunes.

Side Two kicks off with the blistering (and organ/horn-laden) boogie, "Born to Move".

Next up is one of our favorite rocking Creedence tunes, "Hey Tonight" followed by another heartbreaker, "It's Just A Thought", featuring some more melancholic organ and lyrics courtesy of Fogerty.  For a guy with a dutch boy haircut in a flannel shirt, he sure is pretty deep!

"Molina" and "Rude Awakening #2" close out the record, the latter being a pretty strong instrumental that dissipates into a six minute meandering piece of avant-garde.  Not a great end to the album, but still a great album!

RATING: 4.5 Jody's Gonna Get Religion All Night Long out of 5

Sergio Mendes still has a cult following!

Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 - "Crystal Illusions" (1969) - A&M Records

Hello Friends,

Crystal Illusions is not as good as Sergio Mendes' landmark LP, Look Around, but its still a good listen especially on a warm, late spring evening with the sun going down, a cocktail in hand and a pretty girl sitting next to you on the patio! 

Bossa Nova at its swinging best!

An exotic and lush cover of "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" kicks things off, but the real star of the record are the sultry vocal stylings of Ms. Lani Hall (who sings in both English & Portuguese.)  When you hear her on songs like "Salt Sea" or "Empty Faces" it almost makes you want to drink more, scheme more and get into some good kinds of trouble.

Another standout is the album's closer and title track.  A bit of a psychedelic soundscape clocking in at almost 8 minutes featuring lots of shuffling rhythms and Mendes's electric piano.

Of course, the album was produced by Mr. Lani Hall (aka Herb Alpert) and many of the arrangements/orchestrations were composed by legendary jazz composer, Dave Grusin.

RATING: 3.5 watching the wind blow tasting the salt seas out of 5

Apeman Spaceman - "SPACECATRAZ" (2016)

Check it out kids!  Some fancy new indie rock band from London, England featuring members of Dogs & Razorlight!  These kids know how to write a hook!

Enjoy!

Little Games

The Yardbirds - "Little Games" (1967) - Sundazed

Hello Friends,

We're listening to this great 180-gram vinyl reissue of The Yardbirds' fourth and final studio record.

It sounds great on vinyl, especially the Jimmy Page guitar parts!  An overlooked record that sounds closer to something found on Led Zeppelin I rather than on previous Yardbirds releases! 

It's probably best known for its sugary title track and the british invasion minor hit, "Tinker Tailor". 

The instrumental track, "White Summer", would be featured by Jimmy Page at Led Zeppelin concerts throughout the 70's (usually paired as a medley with "Black Mountain Side"). 

"Smile On Me" is a searing rhythm & blues tune.  

Side One's closer "Glimpses" is a cool psychedelic instrumental with some Gregorian chanting thrown in for good measure.  It almost sounds like something to be found on Pink Floyd's More soundtrack or Atom Heart Mother.

Side Two's opener, "Drinking Muddy Water" is another driving blues tune that most closely resembles earlier Yardbirds songs.

"Puzzles" (a bonus track on this LP's release) and "No Excess Baggage" both sound as if they could have been an outtake from The Who Sell Out. 

The old timey sounding "Stealing Stealing", a Gus Cannon cover, is annoying.  As is the original LP's closer, "Little Soldier Boy" and the second bonus track, "I Remember The Night".  It really sucks when a gritty, down-to-earth blues rock band with an ear for melodies and a talent for song-structure gets too creative for their own good and wind up sounding showtuney!

The pensive "Only the Black Rose", penned by singer Keith Relf, again sounds like nothing else in the Yardbirds library, but there's something strange and hypnotic about it.  Its almost like a Bee Thousand-era Guided by Voices tune. 

One might wonder what would have happened if the band stuck around for another album or two.  Unfortunately, it probably would have been an increasingly scattered affair with a lack of structure and focus.  By 1967 everyone in the band seemed to be going in a different direction and, unless you were The Beatles, that usually doesn't make for the greatest results! 

RATING: 4 rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief out of 5

Where Did You Sleep Last Night?

Leadbelly - "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" (2009) - Stardust Records

Hello Friends,

Lordy, lordy.  We've got some great country-folk-blues on the turntable tonight courtesy of Mr. Huddie William Ledbetter.

Perfect soundtrack to a booze-soaked, hot and swampy Memorial Day Weekend while sitting under a tree with a cold cocktail in one hand and the leash of a mangy mutt in the other! 

This compilation contains the hits "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?", "Bourgeois Blues",  "Goodnight Irene", "Looky looky Yonder / Black Betty / Yellow Women's Doorbells", "John Hardy" & "The Gallis Pole".

Yes, "Black Betty" is that "Black Betty" and Led Zeppelin did, um, borrow heavily from "The Gallis Pole" for their own, "Gallows Pole".

RATING: 4.5 heads were found in driving wheels but his body was never found out of 5

Having a Heatwave

Heatwave - "Central Heating" (1978) - GTO Records

Hello Friends,

Heatwave is a 70's-era disco-funk band that featured a real Benetton ad of a line-up that looked more like a Model UN meeting rather than an on-the-rise boogie band.  Their "classic" lineup featured members from Dayton, Ohio, a U.S. Serviceman stationed in Germany, guys from England, Switzerland, Jamaica, Briton & Czechoslovakia.  

Central Heating would be the band's second album and probably captures them at their creative peak.  (In 1979, founder and lead-singer Johnnie Wilder would be paralyzed in a car accident which would severely limit his ability to perform with the group he founded!)

Overall the sound of the record is pretty middle-of-the-road disco.  What's most interesting about the record is probably the fact that there seems to be one or two guys in the band who were more into early Genesis than they were, say, Donna Summer.  So you do get some weird, tricked out guitar/keyboard flourishes throughout.  (For instance, the fills on the opening track, "Put the Word Out" or the opening arrangement on the title track.)


Side Two's opener, "The Groove Line" was a big hit and probably the album's standout.


The aforementioned title track, unfortunately, sounds like it could be a poorly-produced television ad for a local HVAC company.

"Mind Blowing Decisions", "The Star of the Story" & "Leaving for a Dream" are buttery-smooth ballads with some fine vocal harmonizing making them sound closer to something by The Carpenters, Earth, Wind & Fire or even Steely-Dan-On-Downers!  In fact, at times we think this album is closer in sound to a particularly-funky Steely Dan or Bee Gees record rather than some of the grittier stuff being done at the time by The Ohio Players, The Village People or anything by Giorgio Moroder.

FUN FACT: Hey kids, did you know that Heatwave's keyboard-player and main songwriter, Rod Temperton would go on to write some HUGE hits for Michael Jackson like "Off The Wall", "Rock With You" and "Thriller"?

RATING: 3.5 better get your central heating don't get left out in the cold, no use trying to save it for later, got to turn on that old radiator* out of 5 

* these are actual lyrics

Heatwave - "Groove Line" (1978)

Hello Friends,

"Groove Line" is from Heatwave's second LP, Central Heating.  It reached as high as #7 on the U.S. Billboard charts however its probably best-remembered as Nick Andopolis's big dance number in the final episode of Freaks & Geeks.

Boogie-oogie-oogie-oogie.

Cruisin' (for a bruisin')

Village People - Cruisin' (1978) - Casablanca Records

Hello Friends,

The weather is finally getting nicer and the tiki bar is bouncin'.

Cruisin' is the third release by late 70's disco-sensation Village People.

Another kitschy & supremely upbeat record featuring the songs "YMCA", "The Women/I'm a Cruiser Medley", "Hot Cop", "My Roomate" & "Ups and Downs" (a fisting fist-pumping drug anthem complete with Star Wars laser sounds!)

And make no mistake about it friends, the title of record does not refer to driving around with your friends on a Friday drinking milkshakes and crackin' wise.

We still can't believe that even after their Macho Man release earlier in the year, that some fans still didn't realize the incredibly in-your-face gay subtext behind it all.

If the hit song "YMCA" wasn't enough (with thought-provoking lyrics like: "They have everything for you men to enjoy / You can hang out with all the boys / Its fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A." it surely isn't a song about a pick-up basketball game); what about the song, "Hot Cop"?  Featuring a manic, driving beat and such Shakespearean locutions as:

Cuz he's a hot cop
Hottest cop that you'll ever see
I bet you never meet a cop
As funky as me...
Party, boogie, boogie,
Boogie, boogie, get on down...

Yowsa!  I wanna wear leather chaps just hearing this!

"Its not personal, Sonny.  It's strictly business."

And speaking of leather chaps, if there was still any doubt about the subtext here, minds were surely blown just two years later when Al Pacino (aka The Godfather part 2) starred in the William Friedkin movie Cruising about a New York City cop who goes undercover and cruises for gay sex in the steamiest, stickiest and sleaziest of gay nightclubs.




RATING: 4 yellow hankies in left rear pockets out of 5

Bob Mould - "Hold On" (2016)

Hey kids,

Nice to see Bob Mould is still at it.  It seems that every year or so he graces us with another great record!

Enjoy!