Rahm 'Between The Lines'

I received some music from an Israeli artist who goes by the name of Rahm and except for the name of the producer of his five song EP titled 'Between The Lines', Ofer Yair, the fact he's also a professional computer programmer, is married and has a son, I know nothing about him. There is no mention in his press materials of who plays the instruments or even who the female vocalist is who shares some lead vocals with him on a couple of duets (unless it's actually him using a falsetto voice. These days you never know, do you?).

Listen to Between The Lines HERE.

He says, "This album has progressive and psychedelic roots, with influences that reminds you of the 90's and ambitions which climb towards iconic creators such as Pink Floyd, King Crimson, and Genesis."

Listen to 'You Are Not Alone' HERE.

No, it doesn't.

Two of my all time favorite music genres are Psychedelic and Prog Rock and 'Between The Lines' has none of those elements. What it is, and I firmly believe any radio promotion man would agree with me, is Easy Listening. That's not a put down, there's nothing wrong with Easy Listening, it's a very successful radio format. Rahm's songs (except for the title tune which is more aggressive and dramatic), are gentle, lyrical, and arranged with acoustic guitars, grand pianos, flutes, french horns, string sections and Jazz flavored sax and electric guitar solos. 

Listen to 'Always On The Run' HERE.

 His singing is a very soft, breathy style that is reminiscent of Herb Alpert's vocals in the 60s and with a hint of what I assume is an Israeli accent. His subject matter includes his family life on tunes like 'Coming Home', complete with a sound effect intro of feet walking down a gravel road with birds singing, and 'Always On The Run', a sweet ode to his son, which is also about being home since that's where family is.

Listen to 'Coming Home' HERE.

 'You Are Not Alone' is a pretty acoustic guitar song with an electric guitar solo and with a duet with the unnamed female singer who also joins him on the track, 'Fool For You'.

There are no extended solos if you're looking for Prog and no backwards guitar if you're looking for Psychedelic but if you're looking for well produced, well arranged, very mellow Easy Listening pop with some Jazz touches than Rahm might fill the bill.

He Is Me, And We Be Altogether

There is a songwriter in Portland, Oregon who is also a musician and music producer and a singer-songwriter in Calgary, Canada and together they are 'He Is Me'. Now keep in mind that Oregon is one of the few states where marijuana is legal so if all this seems confusing that may be why. 

To clarify; Casey, who in 1999 started his solo music project “Textile Arcade" while an audio engineer for an advertising agency and which featured guests vocalists from the U.S. and Canada, asked Steve, the singer, to sing on one of Casey's new songs. That led to the two of them forming a duo they decided to call 'He Is Me'. Previously they had collaborated on a track called 'Silencer' back in 2001 so it's been 15 years since they first worked together. I wonder how long the commute is from Oregon to Calgary? To make this international musical partnership even more difficult is the fact that now you have to have a passport to enter Canada, or Mexico. That sure would have been a drag when I was a college student at San Diego State. Tijuana was always a fun weekend trip.

He Is Me Drowning Man / Ocean Man video.

Back to He Is Me, Casey Braunger started playing bass at the age of 13 and eventually became a multi-instrumentalist. He’s played in various punk, metal, blues, industrial and electronic bands but he and Steve Moore who performed with prog rock/industrial metal duo The Unravelling, hardcore metal group Inner Surge and electronic project Post Death Soundtracks formed 'He Is Me' to create vast soundscapes with crushing atmosphere and gripping emotional lyrical content. Metal Injection Magazine calls them "one of the most exciting projects to come out of Canada in recent years."

 He Is Me's new single Drowning Man/ Ocean Man. Photo by Ryan Donnel

He Is Me's (that sounds funny) first single was entitled 'Let It Drip'. The track showcases an ambient, free flowing, non verse-chorus-verse approach and is meant as a mantra of sorts. Their new single 'Drowning Man/ Ocean Man' is two separate tracks meant to be heard as a single piece. Although this description (their's not mine) may sound like it could be somewhat "New Age" it is not. It sounds to me much more like Bowie / Eno / Tin Machine Industrial Metal (my description). Sonically layered, dense, atmospheric in a dark Sci Fi, Post Apocalyptic sort of way but with clear (non screaming hard core metal ) emotionally projected vocals. The duo is currently working on a full-length album.

I suppose we're living in the age of "the Producer" as oppose to the bygone era of bands as self contained units. An act like 'He Is Me' could conceivable tour as the live singer and pre-recorded backing tracks and since stadium shows and arenas are financially unfeasible these days anyway, an act like this could do nicely touring clubs and small theaters. With the tracks already programmed (is midi still a thing?) they could even play in sync with their videos projected live (like The Rock & Roll Rehab Show!). What I'm getting at is with their decidedly "trippy" sound and visuals and they just happen to live in Oregon (at least one of them), cannabis clubs and hempfests might be a great venue for this act. 

Glenn Meling's Brother Jonathan From Minnesota

I got a new single from Glenn Meling's new CD entitled "Minnesota". The single is called "Brother Jonathan". According to his press release: "The album is about migration to America in the 19th century, when Brother Jonathan was a term used by immigrants to refer to the USA. Brother Jonathan, which predates the more widely known phrase Uncle Sam, personifies the spirit of the new nation in the eyes of the Europeans who left their homelands behind for a fresh start across the Atlantic."

Brother Jonathan, the logo.

I do like concept albums (see my post: http://thetooners-rocknrollrehab.blogspot.com/2013/04/all-over-music-map.html) but if 'Minnesota' is about the 19th century it certainly isn't reflected in the sound which is highly electronic and very modern sounding. No banjos or acoustic twelve string guitars or mountain dulcimers and no singing with an Appalachian twang although Maling's vocals are very clear, strong and very white. He does employ a chorus of back up singers that give him a soulful veneer but his vocals are of today with no hint of the time period the songs are suppose to represent. Nothing wrong with that in itself. I just didn't expect a synth, drum machine infused track to lyrically be about America's rural past. I suppose I sound like someone complaining that Star Wars is actually a Western in space. So what if the production is well done (it is), the vocals are professional (they are thanks to producer Steve Honest ) and the lyrics are interesting and really applicable to any time and place (they are) if the subject matter is a bit anachronistic (it is)?

 Minnesota, the CD.

Glenn Meling's 'Minnesota' is what I would term an "Easy Listening" album with a very sophisticated and a (what term can I use for "city" other than "Urban" since that has a black connotation?) "downtown loft"(?) vibe to it. In other words this CD does NOT conjure up images of Minnesota, either a hundred years ago or even right now. Again, that's not a slam on a very good, well produced CD but maybe on it's marketing concept.

Glenn Meling probably somewhere in Minnesota.

Maybe Glenn's modern American sound comes from the fact that he's actually from Oslo, Norway. What?! He's another Norwegian that sounds just like an American (see Naveblues)?! I know English is becoming the universal language but are accents all disappearing? He has lived in Australia, United Kingdom and Norway and while living in London studying and performing solo  gigs, he met sound engineer Steve Honest. Together they made the album ‘Sometimes a Bigger Heart’ (2009). He had previously made the album ‘Melingrad’ (2007) in a Norwegian boathouse in one of the fjords near Bergen. ‘Minnesota’ is his third album. Glenn became interested in the journeys of his countrymen after travelling extensively in the States where the influence of the Norwegian settlers continues to this day.  In the 1800s the American midwest became a popular destination for the settlers and today you’ll find collages like St. Olaf in Minnesota which is an       institution that studies Norwegian heritage and immigration. Also, the famous Joel and Ethan Cohen film 'Fargo' has been inspirational and something that sparked his interest in the subject which must make the folks of Fargo especially proud.

Norway's Naveblues

As an animator during the "Second Golden Age Of Animation" I lamented the apparent death of traditional hand drawn animation. But I've been informed that "2D" animation is still alive and well, overseas.

As a long time lead guitarist for Rock & Roll bands I've lamented the apparent death of the lead solo since the age of Garage Band and drum machines. Not just guitar solos but solos of any kind. But now comes the new single and video from Naveblues which proves the soloist isn't dead but is simply overseas. "Thank You", the old Led Zeppelin track from Led Zep 2 is redone with both a great new lead guitar solo, I say "new" because it is not a tribute solo to Jimmy Page, and a really great harmonica solo (what ever happened to Blues Traveler?). Here is a Norwegian singing like an Englishmen trying to sing like an American. He seems to have completely eliminated the middleman and is vocals are convincingly American, bluesy and soulful.

 This CD cover design looks real familiar. I wonder...

It's tough to record a hard rock, bluesy version of a Led Zep song with great solos as that is pretty much the description of a Led Zeppelin song. To come close to the original yet not becoming a clone or a parody is a risky trick but Naveblues pulls it off. The "Robert Plant" of Naveblues, singer - harmonica player, Nave Pundik is the only performer named in the Naveblues press release and since it is also mentioned that he is "making a name for himself as a craftsman of provocative music videos" it makes me think the Naveblues might be more of a recording/video project than an actual band despite what their press release states. Who is that great lead guitar player (I assume the drums are a machine)?

Nave Pundik, I presume?

So if the real "product" here is the music video, let's take a look at that. It is described as being a scene of one of the first settlers on Mars. 

 

 

An uncredited actress (this act doesn't just hand out credits), isolated in her sterile futuristic enclosure and staring out of its wall size picture window to the bleak Martian landscape gets teary eyed when she goes through her grab bag of trinkets from "home". It's a lonely yet beautiful video but it brings up some questions for me: if Mars is a dead planet, it has a solid, frozen core, then it can't generate a magnetic field. Life on Earth is only possible because Earth has a molten core which generates a magnetic field which protects all life from Solar radiation. Even if you could get a bunch of Blue-green Algae to grow and create an oxygen rich atmosphere, the radiation would eventually kill anyone unprotected on the surface for any length of time. I also think the first "settlers" on Mars wouldn't be the nice lady in video but probably the Earth's nastiest convicted felons. We'd probably colonize Mars the way the British colonized Australia. The first people on Mars would most certainly find it more of a punishment and a prison than a "Paradise".

Throwing Human Darts At The Wall To See What Sticks

I love old New Wave music. It was the last popular music that had any kind of a sense of humor about it. Unless you count L.A. Hairspray Metal (Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot, Motley Cru, et al) which I think may have been unintentionally funny. New Wave also had something that became extinct by the late Eighties and that was FUN. It still irks me to think about a story I read back then about the guy from The Pet Shop Boys directing Liza Minnelli in a music video and yelled at her to stop smiling because "this is Rock & Roll!" WTF?! Neither Liza Minnelli nor the Pet Shop Boys were Rock and Roll so WTF did he know?! Really pisses me off.

  Hear The Human Darts' EP HERE.

Well, it seems the sense of fun is back. And it's back in the form of the last style of music to exhibit any, NEW WAVE. Now some people might call the new four song EP from Tampa, Florida's The Human Darts Punk Rock but it's not. Everything New Wave these days is called Punk. Punk Rock has survived the way the violence of the Old West gave it immortality in the History of America or the 1920s Gangster Era or the Black Death in Europe, we love the evil, dark side of things. That's what we find so fascinating so that's the aspect of certain places and times that survives. So now every New Wave band worth remembering from Blondie to The Go Gos, to The Pretenders are labeled as having at least started as a Punk band. I suppose almost all young bands start out as 'Punk' if by that you mean they sucked. I therefore, shall not be referring to Human Darts as 'Punk' but rather 'New Wave'. Thank you very much.

 Hear The Human Darts' EP HERE.

At this point the Human Darts seem to be Shane Close and John Arduser on guitars and vocals and Mr. Zelk on drums, keyboards and as the lead vocalist (see bio below).
Production was done at Parsonage Studios in Tampa with Jeff Knauff engineering.

The four tracks on the new EP are:

Tell My Sister is in the vein of The Go Gos, The Rubber City Rebels, and any number of L.A. bands that played the Madame Wong's, Club 88, Troubadour, and others circuit in the 1980s.


Zombie Man Chant is a variation on the 'Hot Rod Lincoln' / 'Maybelle', drivin' in my car to escape the Man / my folks / my job / my girlfriend with a driving snare beat and complete with car horn sound effects.

Hey Good Lookin', the old Hank William's classic Country tune souped up as a Punkabilly dance number. Obviously the label asked for a single so they came up with this cover.

Stitches is a B52 style New Wave rocker but without the cheesy female vocal backup singing.


Who are these guys? I'm not sure but according to their bio: In the late 70's a record was released by a a band called the Human Darts. One of the interesting things about this was there was no band. 
 
Three friends released the record and went about their own musical careers. The single turned into a punk under ground 'gotta have it' collectors record. What followed was the start of bands with different members and sometimes different names pounding out the simple sonic signature of the Darts record.

Dart bands in various forms toured the country from the Midwest to California and back sowing the seeds of a further counter culture audience . One of the original producers/writers, a rather strange character by the name of Mr. Zelk who's identity you were never quite sure, had participated on and off due to what some consider an odd obsession with toys, UFOs and pets, suddenly and quite unexpectedly resurfaced.  Dragging his toys and animals Zelk tracked down the son of an original member, Shane Close, and original guitarist John Arduser who he found hitting wiffle balls over his house in St. Pete . Fl. And into the studio they went adding other players who fit the eclectic profile of Darts players.

I guess it's the son of an original member who's on the CD cover. BTW, few people realize I was an original member of Klaatu.

DIGITAL ORDER (NOTE: THIS IS NOT AN AD)

 Digital Order sounds like you've bought something online and the company wants to confirm your purchase but it's actually a band from Australia that's said to be a blend of modern dance music and classic hard rock such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.

Hear DIGITAL ORDER HERE,

Founded in 2013 with members Shane Ariti on vocals, Will Cruz playing guitar and keyboards, drummer Henry Gunson and guitarist Andy Beerli DIGITAL ORDER have consistently charted on local Australian radio as well as digital radio in the States.

Their 2014 EP launch was followed with 2 crowd funded Australian tours and drummer Henry Gunson secured the band an exclusive clothing partnership with Australian clothing label ALPHA LEGION. DIGITAL ORDER are about to release yet another installment from their highly anticipated album ‘Sons of the Odyssey‘.But for now what we have is the single "On Our Way".

Vocally this song reminds me of some of the Punk Pop bands of the Ninties such as Blink 182 or Greenday but the intro's chord structure and mandolins and the guitar solo (are guitars solos making a comeback?!) give this song a Led Zep vibe. This is yet another new foreign band that sounds heavily influenced by Led Zeppelin. Then again, being an American I guess Led Zeppelin is a foreign band as well. Are there no new, young American Hard Rock bands? Is this like 1964 when the American music scene had become so corporate and stagnate that the rebirth of the Music Industry had to invade from England?  Now it's Norway and Australia that are sending us back our own sound. There is nothing wrong with that but I am curious how "Australian Rock" would sound. I hear some Nine Inch Nails ambient noise and of course, the Led Zeppelinness but is there anything in the mix that makes DIGITAL ORDER sound "Australian"? I'm not asking for another "Men At Work" (who got sued for sounding too Australian), just something with some local flavor. With the world shrinking and TV and the Internet allowing everyone, everywhere to turn on to the same thing at the same time, we're becoming too homogenized and the next step is too sterile. This single is good for what it is but what it is we've heard before. As an American Rock & Roll is MY ROOTS, where are this bands' roots? it's great that different people from opposite sides of the planet can all relate to the same culture but I don't go to a Chinese restaurant to get a hamburger or hotdog. I'm just saying.

Phoebe Nir "Side Hustle" EP

If you were around in Hollywood during the New Wave days of the 80s you were familiar with the female fronted band sound of Missing Persons, The Motels, Tony Basil, Cindy Lauper, The Go Gos and the famous L.A. pinup girl / pop star Angeline. Listening to New York City's Phoebe Nir's new CD entitled "Side Hustle", released through True Groove Records, takes me right back to cruising from Harry's Pit BBQ on Crescent Heights (where they had a breath mint dispenser selling candies made exactly to look like Quaaludes) to Wong's West on Wilshire Blvd. with Frasier Smith on the radio and Max Headroom on MTV (they used to play music videos back then).

 Now before you say I'm being unfair calling Phoebe's sound "Retro New Wave" I need to tell you she starts out her six song EP with the Iggy Pop classic "Lust For Life" (1977). That pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the EP and it's a pretty fun tone. This girl is definitely just wanting to have fun and these songs are the perfect soundtrack to a fun night out. These days "fun" can have a dark, even sinister aura to it as the times have certainly changed and what may have seemed so shocking back in 1980 seems absolutely quaint now but infectious, bouncy, catchy and just plain happy sounds are never out of style if that's what you're in the mood for. 

All the songs on "Side Hustle" are written by Phoebe Nir except for the Iggy / David Bowie "Lust for Life" and are produced by Tomás Doncker and James Dellatacoma for True Groove Records. Tomás Doncker, James Dellatacoma played the guitars, Nick Rolfe and Manu Koch  the keyboards, Mike Griot the bass and James "Whoop" Coley is the drummer. James Dellatacoma at Orange Music Sound Studios did a great job of mixing and with horn sections (Mac Gollehon), back up vocals (Mac Gollehon and Charlie Funk) and sound effects it's a circus in your ears. Michael Fossenkemper of TurtleTone Studios mastered it for those keeping track.

 

Phoebe has performed at some of New York's hottest venues, including Joe's Pub and 54 Below, and was received at the White House by President Obama as a Presidential Scholar of the Arts. She is currently developing a Broadway-bound musical theater trilogy, 'Diana & Navy', with composer/producer Tomás Doncker.

Phobe Nir will be opening for No Wave icons James Chance & The Contortions at the Bowery Electric on November 10th, 2016 as a featured member of the True Groove All Stars. Until she hits L.A. you can hit her up at phoebenir.com.