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.

Tilted Axes - Coming Soon Down Your Street

My son Benjamin is an aspiring screenwriter whose interests as a writer is in Sci Fi, Fantasy and what could be called New Age Adventure. His new project involves the concept of the Multi Universe or Multiverse theory. This theory postulated by theoretical physicists but originally taught by shamen and mystics throughout the ages theorizes that we bounce between different yet similar worlds and if we are perceptive and aware enough we can spot when we've entered a new and different reality. In the reality I must have entered in order to hear the new CD from New York's Tilted Axes titled "Music For Mobile Guitars" a world must exist where Robert Fripp from King Crimson and League Of Crafty Guitarists isn't a pioneering Prog Rock guitar player but rather a music director of a college marching band. Sounds strange? You ain't heard nothing yet.

Tilted Axes new CD. Listen here.

In this strange new world our band leader is a gentleman by the name of Patrick Grant and he leads his Prog/Art/Experimental marching band made up of local musicians on a procession route through city squares, centers of transportation and indoor structures like museums. The city, which may be his native New York although he's also led the band through the streets of Detroit and Düsseldorf, Germany, usually invites Tilted Axes as part of a larger arts festival or event such as New York's "Make Music Winter" in 2011.

Patrick Grant, ringleader, baton major and tour guide.

The procession is accompanied by posters and placards which let the public know more about the event, sponsors, the hosting organization and its purpose. Flexible in number, Tilted Axes adapts itself to the environment or occasion and feeds on the energy of a constantly shifting audience. Tilted Axes cuts musical pathways through the urban landscape, turning neighborhoods into sonic narratives. As a form of street theater, the ensemble brings potent, ecstatic riffs and an element of surprise, to an unsuspecting public. Tilted Axes is always in motion; striding in, rocking out, and moving on. Being as experimental as one might assume since they're an ever changing line up of local musicians, the music is instrumental and involves a degree of improvisation.

This is a very unique project and one that is constantly changing therefore I must assume the music on "Music For Mobile Guitars" is probably consisting mostly of Patrick Grant and a core group and may not accurately represent any given live performance. How could it, especially using local, unknown guitarists at every performance? The "marching band" members carry small amplifiers strapped to them and have a few weeks before the event to learn the planned repertoire while Patrick himself arrives a week ahead of time to conduct rehearsals.  

I'm wondering if his band name, Tilted Axes, is a reference to the New Age believe in the Earth's tilting on its axis which allegedly caused the end of the last Ice Age and led to the loss of Atlantis? 

According to his most impressive bio: Patrick Grant is a composer/performer living in New York City and creates music for a wide range of media. A native of Detroit, MI, he moved to NYC in the mid-80s where he studied at the Julliard School, worked on the production team for composer John Cage, and produced his first recordings at the studios of Philip Glass. He spearheaded the compositional element of an international project for the Millennium which had him working with Billy Joel and Quincy Jones. Interest in world music brought him to Bali three times to study the gamelan which  manifested itself in his work through the use of alternative tunings, ensembles with multiple keyboards, and in his work with Robert Fripp & The Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists.

 
He is host of the internationally acclaimed podcast "Strings and Things". Grant is a recipient of the 2012-13 Con Edison Musicians' Residency: Composition Program at the Turtle Bay Music School administered by Exploring the Metropolis. In 2012 and 2013 he received ASCAP Plus Awards for continued musical excellence. Recently, he performed as music producer and coarranger of NYFA Fellow Joseph Keckler's "I am an Opera" for a month of sold-out shows at Dixon Place in NYC and beyond.

He is the creator of International Strange Music Day (Aug. 24th) and the electric guitar procession as a genre. Recently he was granted rights from the Beatles' publishers to create a set of variations on Strawberry Fields Forever for chamber ensemble and rock band. He has created scores for theatrical visionaries The Living Theatre and Robert Wilson, and music for installations at the Louvre and the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. His music has been applied visually through seven collaborations with the artist Kehinde Wiley, scores for feature documentaries, and music tech seminars each semester at the NYU Film School.

Within the last year his music has been performed extensively by theater troupes in Brazil, appearing in the major cities and international festivals there. In 2009, with radio producer Jocelyn Gonzales, he created the MMiX Festival of Interactive Music Technology in NYC, an
event co-sponsored by Ableton (LIVE), Cycling ’74 (Max/MSP), and WNYC Radio.

In December 2009, he music directed the European premiere of his electronic realization of the Morton Feldman / Samuel Beckett opera “Neither” in Vienna. In 2010, Grant returned to Europe and Brazil for new works in concert, theater and multimedia and created H2Opus: Fluid Soundscapes by Multiple Composers for Make Music New York 2010. Grant also produces content for the new music blog The MMiXdown and is a co-director of Composers Concordance Records.

He has created musical scores for the Cornell Gamelan Ensemble and the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company in San Francisco (a piece called "the strangest and most ravishing dance of the year" by the SF Chronicle and nominated for Best Dance Score of 2003 by the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards). His work often involves elements found in the natural and physical sciences (Genome: The Autobiography of a Species).

The Slang "Night and Day" EP

I saw a TV show the other night about the changing music scene in Nashville, Tennessee which has always been called the Country Music Capitol of America. Now it seems it is becoming simply the Music Capitol of America as all sorts of bands are relocating there. I wonder, does that make Branson, Missouri the Country Music Capitol of America? In Nashville these days you can still find Country but also Blues, Jazz, Pop, Rock and the music The Slang play which they call Alt.

The Slang's 5 song EP "Day & Night".

Recorded at the Ocean Way Studios in Nashville, the EP highlights the talents of songwriter, vocalist and multi instrumentalist John Bobo and Bassist John Newsome. The album was produced by Russ Long (Wilco, Sixpence None the Richer), assisted by Jasper LeMaster with string Arrangements by Matthew Slocum and with additional recording at The Brown Owl in Nashville, mixed at The Carport, also in Nashville, mastered by Jim DeMain and assisted by Amy Marie at Yes Master Studios,  in, you guessed it, Nashville.

One of these guys is John Bobo and the other is John Newsome. But I don't know which is which.

 The band's press kit is loaded with credits for this EP including Miles McPherson on drums and percussion, Jerry McPherson and John Garratt on guitars, Dustin Ransom on organ, synth and upright piano with Kim Keyes and Chris Rodriguez singing backup and a string section consisting of Kris Wilkinson, David Davidson, David Angell and Sari Reist. So my question is how is this a two man band (Bobo & Newsome)?

At what point did the music business become a matter of getting a couple guys, arm them with a virtual army of session musicians and production people and call it "a band" (the Monkees, The Beach Boys, Milli Vanilli...)? Nevermind, I guess it's been going on forever but according to The Slang's press kit: "Their musical talents have earned them invitations to several premier music conferences including MPMF, NXNE, IPO and CMJ. In addition, the sounds of The Slang have been used in various mainstream outlets including HBO, USA network, and Troma Films.  The  band’s first self-titled EP mixed by Mark Needham (The Killers, Tokyo Police Club, The Toxic Airborne Event) and mastered by Brian Lucey (The Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys) had solid success throughout the US with over 50+ CMJ stations playing tracks from the EP as well as numerous industry write-ups, both stateside and abroad."

 

 

Video for The Slang's "Night and Day".

 That's actually pretty impressive and it seems they have a pretty good support system so does the music itself seem worthy? Yes, if you like bands like Dada, Gin Blossoms, Foo Fighters and other 90s alternative rock bands. What I like about those bands as well as The Slang is that you can actually hear the instruments. Sometime during the age of Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson and unlimited multi-track recording it became popular to pile on the electric guitars until the guitar sound was a thick, heavy mid-range hum. Overdubbing too many guitars loses the attack (the pick hitting the strings) and the natural decay of the notes and you end up with a sound that seems more like a keyboard than a string instrument. On The Slang's five song EP tunes such as "Day & Night" you really feel like you're listening to an actual, live, band. This is an EP that works the way phonograph records were originally created to work; namely a sample of a band's performance that makes you want to go buy a ticket to see them play live. Other songs like the lush, beautiful opening number "The Ballad Of Everything" or the song "Breakthrough" bring to mind the sort of sound like that of the band Keane, that is to say sweeping, romantic and with a good Alt sense of yearning.

 

This is the sad part where I want to tell you to go see them live this Friday at the Local Rock Club or Concert Venue but all I can tell you is that they're planning to tour this fall (now) so Google The Slang, go see them and then write back to me and tell me how the show was. I'm curious if they perform as a duo or if they come close to sounding like their monster recording.