Going into the weekend, here is a roundup of notable music news that landed in my inbox this week...Robert Kinsler
I will have a full-length review in my column that runs early next week, but I still want to let everyone know that the highly-anticipated return of Neil Young with Crazy Horse, Colorado, is officially out today. Colorado is the first new studio album featuring Young and Crazy Horse since 2012's Psychedelic Pill, which was truly one of the great albums released that year. This album also marks the return of legendary Nils Lofgren (piano and guitar) to the ranks of Crazy Horse. The lineup is rounded out by Billy Talbot on bass and Ralph Molina on drums. I've just started playing the album today and it is just wonderful to hear the powerful and freewheeling artists back and making powerful expansive rock 'n' roll together.
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Mike Reno of Loverboy.
Photo: Robert Kinsler |
If you missed Loverboy's headlining performance at City National Grove of Anaheim last night, you can still catch the '80s hitmakers when they perform at Fantasy Springs Resort & Casino in Indio on Saturday night, October 26. I've driven out to Fantasy Springs a few times and it is a terrific place to catch shows. Most recently, I caught Brian Wilson and the Zombies at the venue, and it is an intimate space to catch high-profile names. I last caught Canadian rockers Loverboy in concert when the band performed with Rick Springfield last year and the band was great. You can read my review of that August 2018 concert here.
Information: https://www.fantasyspringsresort.com/loverboy/.
Paul McCartney makes Orange Amplification's Cliff Cooper LIPA Honoured Friend
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Sir Paul McCartney and Cliff Cooper at
the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts
Awards Ceremony on July 26, 2019.
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Orange Amplification Founder and CEO, Cliff Cooper has been made an Honoured Friend of the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA). He was presented with the award by Sir Paul McCartney at a ceremony held on the 26th July 2019 at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, United Kingdom. When making the award, Mark Featherstone-Witty of LIPA said, ‘Cliff is our Honoured Friend. This rather special award is given to people who have been generous …….without a hint of expecting anything in return. So Cliff for this award you are an exemplar!.......Putting something back is part of your psyche…….You are a hero and it is good to know there are people like you in the world and even better, associated with us!’ Founded in 1968, Orange Amplification was born from Cliff’s love of music and skill as an electronics designer. The company is famous for its British made AD and Rockerverb series and the introduction of the groundbreaking Terror, Crush and Crush Pro series. Many of the world’s greatest guitarists and bassists love and use Orange’s iconic amps including Jimmy Page, Stevie Wonder, Foals, Oasis, Mastodon, Madonna, Jim Root, Billy Gibbons, Geddy Lee, Glenn Hughes, Orianthi and Marcus King to name but a few. LIPA was co-founded by Paul McCartney and Mark Featherstone-Witty in 1996. Today, LIPA is a university-level provider of world class teaching for performers of all genres. Earlier this year, five LIPA graduates made it into Stage’s list of the 100 Most Influential People Working in UK Theatre. Cliff and Orange started working with LIPA more than fifteen years ago when he purchased the Beatles Museum from Wembley PLC. When he sold the museum to Liverpool Council it had more than doubled in size. ‘I am extremely proud to receive this award, especially as it came as a complete surprise and from such a distinguished Institution’ said Cliff commenting on his award. Cliff joins a list of people honoured by LIPA that includes The Late Sir George Martin, Sir Ian McKellen, Ozzy & Sharon Osborne, Bill Nighy, Ben Elton, Dawn French, Stephen Fry, Rowan Atkinson, The Late Amy Winehouse and many, many more. To find out more about Orange Amplification please go to orangeamps.com. To find out more about LIPA, please go to lipasixthformcollege.org
Robbie Robertson's 'Sinematic' Deluxe Edition out today via UMe
LIMITED EDITION COLLECTOR’S SET PRESENTS ALBUM ON 2LP VINYL AND CD WITH HARDCOVER BOOK BEAUTIFULLY DISPLAYING ARTWORK ROBERTSON CREATED FOR EACH SONG
“I HEAR YOU PAINT HOUSES” AND “REMEMBRANCE” INCLUDED IN MARTIN SCORSESE’S “THE IRISHMAN” FEATURING ROBERTSON’S ORIGINAL SCORE
NEW DOCUMENTARY FILM, “ONCE WERE BROTHERS: ROBBIE ROBERTSON AND THE BAND,” TO RECEIVE U.S. PREMIERE AS OPENING NIGHT FILM AT DOC NYC NOVEMBER 6
Los Angeles – October 25, 2019 – Legendary songwriter/musician Robbie Robertson’s acclaimed new album, Sinematic, is now available as a Deluxe Edition, which presents the evocative 13-song collection on CD and 180-gram 2LP vinyl with an accompanying lavish 12” x 12” casebound 36-page hardcover book featuring the custom artwork Robertson created for each track. Listeners are brought even further into Robertson’s Sinematic world with the suite of multimedia images, which includes a series of striking portraits and abstract images, ranging from expressionist paintings to experimental photography. In one depiction, a photo of Robertson’s Walther 9mm pistol, “the same gun James Bond used,” is drenched in crimson and gold, juxtaposed next to a menacing figure. In another, paint seeps into a textured canvas as if it’s been burned in. The limited edition collector’s set is available exclusively at uDiscover. Order here: https://RobbieRobertson.lnk.to/Sinematic
For fans who would like to own a piece of Robertson’s artwork, four images – the Sinematic album cover, “Beautiful Madness,” “Shanghai Blues,” and “Walk In Beauty Way” – are available for purchase as archival-quality, framed canvas prints in a limited run of 100 for each. To view and order the images, visit: https://RobbieRobertson.lnk.to/Sinematic
Robertson’s first new studio album in eight years was inspired by his decades of creating and composing music for film and is filled with gripping tales of villainy and vice, mobsters and gangsters embroiled in corruption and crime, melancholy stories about destruction and devastation and a pair of deeply personal songs about The Band and the youthful dream that launched his wildly successful six decade-long career. The dramatic collection, which plays like a series of mini movies, builds on Robertson’s celebrated solo works while pushing his songwriting into exciting new sonic territory. Sinematic has received rave reviews with Rolling Stone calling it, “An album of story-songs set to the sort of diaphanously blues-rock that characterizes Robertson’s sleek, expansive film music,” continuing, “Robertson’s guitar is a voice that always rings true.” Mojo praised, “The Band legend’s first solo album since 2011 is a blockbuster,” while Uncut said, “The music sounds great, dark and ambient: a rootsy industrial palette.” Associated Press commented that “Robertson is dialed-in when taking a bittersweet look back at his days with The Band in ‘Once Were Brothers’” and American Songwriter expressed that “the album’s title accurately describes the visual aspects this music conjures.”
Robertson drew inspiration for Sinematic from his recent film score writing and recording for director Martin Scorsese’s long-awaited organized crime epic, “The Irishman,” as well as the feature documentary film, “Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band,” based on his 2016 New York Times bestselling memoir “Testimony.” The documentary, which opened the Toronto International Film Festival to widespread praise in September, will have its U.S. premiere as the opening night film at the annual documentary film festival DOC NYC on November 6. It will receive a theatrical release in early 2020 by Magnolia Pictures who have acquired the film for worldwide distribution.
“I was working on music for ‘The Irishman’ and working on the documentary, and these things were bleeding into each other,” says Robertson of the impetus for Sinematic. “I could see a path. Ideas for songs about haunting and violent and beautiful things were swirling together like a movie. You follow that sound and it all starts to take shape right in front of your ears. At some point, I started referring to it as ‘Peckinpah Rock’,” a nod, Robertson says, to Sam Peckinpah, the late director of such violent Westerns as “The Wild Bunch.”
Sinematic opens with “I Hear You Paint Houses,” featuring the devilish invitation from Robertson, “Shall we take a little spin/To the dark side of town?,” that sets the album’s stage for these noirish, cinematic vignettes. Drawn from Scorsese’s film, “The Irishman,” and the book it’s based on, Charles Brandt’s “I Heard You Paint Houses” about confessed hit man Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, the song is a riveting duet with Van Morrison that features bright guitar and a blithe tone that belies its chilling lyrics (mob code for hiring a hit man, painting houses refers to spattering walls with blood). The song will be featured in “The Irishman” alongside Sinematic’s emotional closing track “Remembrance,” which will play during the film’s end credits.
Narrated in Robertson’s cool parched croon, the yarns unspool over his vibrant guitar stylings and a bedrock of moody, midtempo rock, anchored on most tracks by bassist Pino Palladino (John Mayer Trio, The Who), drummer Chris Dave (D’Angelo, Adele), and keyboardist Martin Pradler, who also mixed the record. The band is rounded out with Afie Jurvanen, who provides guitar and backing vocals, along with vocalist Felicity Williams, a regular collaborator with Jurvanen in his band Bahamas. Robertson is joined on the album by special guest vocalists Van Morrison, Glen Hansard, Citizen Cope, J.S. Ondara, and Laura Satterfield; musicians Jim Keltner, Derek Trucks, Frédéric Yonnet, and Doyle Bramhall II; and producer Howie B who provides throbbing electronic textures to several tracks.
On “Dead End Kid,” one of Sinematic’s many standouts, Robertson turns the lens inward as he recalls some of the obstacles and low expectations he faced as a youth as a member of a First Nation and Jewish gangster family. “When I was growing up in Toronto, I was telling people, ‘One of these days I’m going to make some music and go all over the world,’” Robertson said. “Everyone was like, that’s never going to happen. You’re a dead end kid. Because my relatives were First Nation people and Jewish gangsters, it was assumed my dreams were going to explode. I found strength in overcoming that disbelief.” Wielding his guitar like a dangerous weapon, he demonstrates the breathtaking playing skills that caused a frenzy on Bob Dylan’s notorious 1966 electric tour and that helped to birth the Americana genre. Robertson’s defiant lyrics recall his teenage dream to play his music around the globe: “I want to show the world/Something they ain’t never seen/I want to take you somewhere/You ain’t never been.” Robertson’s raspy vocal is perfectly complemented by Glen Hansard’s soulful, soaring voice. The acclaimed Irish vocalist of The Frames, The Swell Season, and star of the film “Once,” Hansard resurfaces on Sinematic’s spirited rocker “Let Love Reign,” inspired by John Lennon’s call for peace.
Throughout the album, Robertson takes listeners through a colorful tour of society’s seedy underbelly. “Shanghai Blues” is a vivid saga examining China’s notorious Green Gang mobster Du Yuesheng, who dominated opium, gambling and prostitution operations in the early 20th century. More crime and mystery unfold in the moody “sinphony,” “Street Serenade.” The edgy, electronic “The Shadow” is a nostalgic homage to Orson Welles’ entrancing radio crime drama.
Robertson’s guitar playing takes center stage on two instrumental tracks, “Wandering Souls” and the album’s string-laden closer, “Remembrance,” written for his late friend, Microsoft co-founder and music lover Paul Allen. Robertson enlisted Allen’s guitar heroes Derek Trucks and Doyle Bramhall II, plus drummer Jim Keltner, for the grand and melancholy elegy.
While many of the songs on Sinematic focus on sinful themes far removed from Robertson, he draws from his own extraordinary life story for the track, “Once Were Brothers,” a bittersweet reflection on The Band, written for the new documentary of the same name. Robertson is joined on the track by Nairobi native J.S. Ondara and American singer/songwriter Citizen Cope. Mournful strains of a harmonica and organ play as Robertson relates The Band’s farewell, singing “Once were brothers/Brothers no more.” Of the song, Robertson says, “There is war and conflict involved. Writing it hurt inside sometimes, but those experiences can be rewarding in the emotional outcome. It hurt but I loved it.”
Inspired by Robertson’s acclaimed 2016 autobiography, “Testimony,” director Daniel Roher’s “Once Were Brothers” is a confessional, cautionary, and sometimes humorous tale of Robertson’s young life and the creation of one of the most enduring groups in the history of popular music, The Band. The compelling film blends rare archival footage, photography, iconic songs, and interviews with many of Robertson’s friends and collaborators, including Martin Scorsese, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Peter Gabriel, Taj Mahal, Dominique Robertson, and Ronnie Hawkins. Made in conjunction with Imagine Documentaries, White Pine Pictures, Bell Media Studios, and Universal Music Canada’s Shed Creative, the project is executive produced by Martin Scorsese; Imagine Entertainment chairmen Brian Grazer and Ron Howard; Justin Wilkes and Sara Bernstein for Imagine Documentaries; White Pines Pictures’ president Peter Raymont, and COO Steve Ord; Bell Media president, Randy Lennox; Jared Levine; Michael Levine; Universal Music Canada president and CEO Jeffrey Remedios; and Shed Creative’s managing director Dave Harris. The film is produced by Andrew Munger, Stephen Paniccia, Sam Sutherland, and Lana Belle Mauro.
FRANK ZAPPA’S HALLOWEEN SHOWS RECORDED LIVE IN 1973 AT THE AUDITORIUM THEATER IN CHICAGO AVAILABLE TODAY FOR FIRST TIME AS LIMITED EDITION FOUR-DISC COSTUME BOX
HALLOWEEN 73 FEATURES SPECIALLY DESIGNED FRANKenZAPPA MASK AND GLOVES AND MORE THAN FOUR AND A HALF HOURS OF UNRELEASED LIVE PERFORMANCES SPANNING TWO FULL SHOWS AND A BONUS DISC OF RARE REHEARSALS
HALLOWEEN 73 HIGHLIGHTS ALBUM COLLECTS PERFORMANCES FROM
BOTH SHOWS ON SINGLE DISC
Los Angeles – October 25, 2019 – Throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, the iconoclastic composer Frank Zappa put on a series of spectacular, now legendary, shows around Halloween each year to celebrate his favorite holiday. Before settling on New York in 1974 to host his annual costume-clad festivities, which would continue until he retired the tradition in 1984, Zappa, fronting an exciting new band, performed two rousing back-to-back Halloween concerts the year prior at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago. Whereas many of the NYC shows were not recorded, due to the musician’s union charging exorbitant fees making it virtually impossible to allow Zappa to record the event, there were no such restrictions at the Chicago show – in true Zappa fashion it was of course taped.
Now for the first time ever, Zappa’s two complete Halloween shows recorded on October 31, 1973 in Chicago, are available today, October 25 via Zappa Records/UMe, just in time for Halloween. These completely unreleased live recordings total more than four and a half hours and feature songs from across his prolific catalog, including his then just-released 1973 album Over-Nite Sensation and forthcoming 1974 record Apostrophe(‘), as well as early arrangements of compositions like “Penguin In Bondage,” “Dickie’s Such An Asshole” and “Village Of The Sun” that would appear on later studio and live albums. Continuing the Halloween series that the Zappa Family Trust began in 2017 with the acclaimed Halloween 77 releases, Halloween 73 is available as a specially designed, limited run four-disc costume box complete with a FRANKenZAPPA mask and gloves, housed in a display worthy box. Produced by Ahmet Zappa and Vaultmeister Joe Travers, the boxed set is rounded out with a 40-page booklet featuring detailed liner notes from Travers and Ruth Komanoff Underwood and Ralph Humphrey, Zappa’s bandmates who played in the shows, and a wealth of never-before-seen photos from the event.
The two full shows are presented on discs 1-3, with the fourth disc dedicated to unreleased rehearsals recorded just before the tour started. A single CD version titled Halloween 73 Highlights, which collects together 16 handpicked performances from both shows, is also available. The concerts were recorded on 1/2” 4-track analog tape which was stored in pristine condition in Zappa’s personal Vault. The tracks were digitally transferred in 96K/24B from the original analog tapes by Travers in 2019 and mastered and re-mixed by Craig Parker Adams. Both the deluxe boxed set and Highlights album will be available digitally for streaming and download.
After Zappa’s European tour that ended in September of ’73, the ever-restless musician decided to shake up his lineup once again and replaced woodwind and keyboards player Ian Underwood and violinist Jean Luc-Ponty with two new members: Chester Thompson on drums and Napoleon Murphy Brock who supplied vocals, tenor sax and flute. Following a month of rehearsals, the Halloween shows in Chicago marked the second gig for this new lineup. These recordings then represent the first official recording of this new configuration which as Travers writes in the liners, “would become infamous with the shows at The Roxy Theater scheduled for that December in Los Angeles and filmed for all posterity.”
Proceeding the Roxy performances, which can be heard in full on 2018’s The Roxy Performances boxed set, as well as the 1974 double live album Roxy & Elsewhere, it’s thrilling to hear the band dynamics and evolution. As Travers writes, “the music is fresh and going through changes, along with incorporating the new funky rhythms of Chester and the dynamic lead vocals of Napoleon. And with the mallets of Ruth Underwood prominently featured in the instrumentation, Bruce Fowler’s bionic trombone, Ralph Humphrey’s technical wizardry of the drum set, Tom Fowler’s command of the bass and the keyboard mastery of George Duke, it’s a no-brainer that this line-up would go on to be a favorite among fans. The musicianship and chemistry of the personnel blended so well together with the material Frank was writing. It would prove to be a golden period in the history of Frank Zappa and these Halloween shows are proof.”
Band members Ruth Komanoff Underwood and Ralph Humphrey both provide some fascinating insight into what it was like to play with Zappa and some insightful history about these shows in the in-depth liner notes which also feature beautiful live shots and intimate backstage photos. Underwood details Zappa’s desire to constantly change up the musicians he worked with and states, “Frank, though, wasn’t looking back for a moment, but only characteristically ahead, relishing the excitement and challenge at hand. Personnel changes had become routine for him, and he thrived on the new musical possibilities and mix of personalities. It was evident, then and always, that Frank needed to live his life in a state of perpetual transition, a reality that could be as maddening to us as it was exciting for all. However unnerving these constant changes, the exertion made us better players, despite some figurative bumps and bruises.”
These concerts would be the only Halloween shows that Zappa performed in Chicago as the Halloween tradition would start the next year in NYC in 1974 and continue for the next decade. These shows would have the same unbridled, celebratory spirit of the NY gigs that David Fricke of Rolling Stone hailed as “advanced, instrumental ecstasy, cliff-edge improvisation and impromptu theatrical hijinks.”
HALLOWEEN 73 TRACK LIST
Disc 1 (Show 1)
1. “Happy Halloween To Each And Every One Of You” 4:36
2. Pygmy Twylyte 3:25
3. The Idiot Bastard Son 2:24
4. Cheepnis 3:28
5. “Another Assembly Of Items” 1:29
6. The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue 1:02
7. Kung Fu 1:32
8. Penguin In Bondage 7:12
9. T’Mershi Duween 1:46
10. The Dog Breath Variations 1:47
11. Uncle Meat 2:24
12. RDNZL 5:54
13. Village Of The Sun 4:14
14. Ecidna’s Arf (Of You) 4:11
15. Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing? 9:54
16. Montana 6:55
TRT: 62:12
Disc 2 (Show 1 Continued)
1. Dupree’s Paradise 19:12
2. “Almost Up To Date” 1:35
3. Dickie’s Such An Asshole 10:04
(Show 2)
4. “That Greatest Of American Holidays” 4:50
5. Cosmik Debris 6:51
6. “We’re Hurtin’ For Tunes” 1:04
7. Pygmy Twylyte 3:40
8. The Idiot Bastard Son 2:17
9. Cheepnis 4:18
10. I’m The Slime 4:29
11. Big Swifty 9:37
TRT: 67:56
Disc 3 (Show 2 Continued)
1. The History Of The San Clemente Magnetic Deviation 1:50
2. Dickie’s Such An Asshole 9:59
3. “Another New Event” :56
4. Farther O’Blivion – Part 1 9:03
5. Father O’Blivion – Part 2 10:10
6. “Pervert’s Special Holiday” 1:10
7. Penguin In Bondage 7:27
8. T’Mershi Duween 1:45
9. RDNZL 6:06
10. Inca Roads 10:55
11. Medley: Son Of Mr. Green Genes/King Kong/Chunga’s Revenge 16:23
TRT: 75:44
Disc 4 (Bonus Rehearsals 10-20/21-73)
1. The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue (10-21-73) 1:05
2. Penguin In Bondage (10-20-73) 6:45
3. T’Mershi Duween (10-20-73) 1:46
4. Dog Breath (10-20-73) 1:28
5. The Dog Breath Variations (10-20-73) 1:20
6. Uncle Meat (10-20-73) 2:18
7. RDNZL (10-20-73) 5:10
8. Magic Fingers (10-21-73) 4:47
9. Inca Roads (10-20-73) 14:38
10. Father O’Blivion (10-21-73) 17:54
11. Cosmik Debris (10-20-73) 10:36
12. Big Swifty (10-21-73) 4:41
TRT: 72:28
HALLOWEEN 73 HIGHLIGHTS TRACK LIST
1. “Happy Halloween To Each And Every One Of You” (Show 1) 4:36
2. Pygmy Twylyte (Show 2) 3:40
3. The Idiot Bastard Son (Show 2) 2:17
4. Cheepnis (Show 2) 3:18
5. “Another Assembly Of Items” (Show 1) 1:29
6. The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue (Show 1) 1:02
7. Kung Fu (Show 1) 1:32
8. Penguin In Bondage (Show 1) 7:12
9. T’Mershi Duween (Show 1) 1:46
10. The Dog Breath Variations (Show 1) 1:47
11. Uncle Meat (Show 1) 2:24
12. RDNZL (Show 1) 5:50
13. I’m The Slime (Show 2) 4:29
14. Big Swifty (Show 2) 9:25
15. “The History Of The San Clemente Magnetic Deviation (Show 2) 1:48
16. Dickie’s Such An Asshole (Show 2) 10:24
TRT: 63:02
