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Music SkeletonPete Says

Helsinki Hellions Electrify Bowery


Hell(sinki) Yeah!

Revved up, fist pumping music that’s serious about only one thing; having some serious fun. That’s what Naked present and represent. It’s a brand of party rock that came out of garages and frat houses in the sixties to mutate into the likes of everything from The Stooges and The MC5 to The New York Dolls, Cheap Trick, and Kiss. Hailing from Helsinki Finland, home of Hanoi Rocks (probably the only 80’s glam band that got it right), Naked have gained much success, an international following, and radio play since their inception in 2001.

Bowery Boyz
I caught the July 20th opening night set at The Bowery Electric on New York’s Lower East Side; a fitting spot to begin since the video for single “Sonic High” prominently features East Village sites. Though essentially plugging their newest album “Double Down” the set included a nice mix of material from across their ten year career. Kicking off the evening with “Revolution” the band immediately displayed its strong suit, trashy rhythms with instantly catchy choruses punctuated by three part harmony vocals. Naked’s ability to pull off their song’s recorded harmonies on stage is impressive and was highlighted later in the set by a surprise snippet of the acapella opening of Queen’s “Fat Bottom Girls”.

While each member clearly exudes his own personality, offering the audience a host of possibilities to focus on, the group also gives off a cohesive “band of brothers” vibe. Wiry lead vocalist “The Muff” – so dubbed for his mushroom cloud of pitch black hair – is an energetic and engaging front man. Minus the goatee he sports in the band’s videos he gave off an even more youthful appearance as he exhorted the fans to join in on sing-a-long choruses. In addition to vocal duties Muff chunks out the raucous rhythm chords that define this style of music. Bassist Ilari was all smiles and exuberance belying the fact that he had only arrived in The States a few hours before the gig and guitarist Zack reeled off strings of lead melodies between singing harmonies. “Mr.” Tikka’s solid drum work added a sturdy backbone to the freneticism that unfolded before him.

SkeletonPete Says

I will confess that Naked won me over early when I spied a Mosrite “Ventures” guitar on stage. It’s a garage punk fan-boy’s sucker punch if there ever was one. Though they left the confetti machine at home, it was great to experience the band’s play-to-the-rafters style in the Bowery Electric’s confines.

Still Time To Get Naked
As of this writing there is still an opportunity to catch the band in the New York area, which I highly recommend you do. Check Naked’s website for current tour details.

Where’s the Pictures, Pete?
My photo coverage of the Bowery Electric gig can be found here. Lots of images to document the rollicking good time had by all. You should also check out Ken Pierce’s fun “Day Out With The Muff” report.

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Music SkeletonPete Says

Electric Assault Records Adds Some Doom to your Day


Friends, Lend Me Your EAR…
Fans of early Black Sabbath albums would do well to check out the first release from New York’s Electric Assault Records label. With a company slogan like “Destroy at Maximum Volume”, you have to figure they intend to be an imprint of gravitas when it comes to heaviness and this initial salvo does not disappoint. The single by Rhode Island metalers Pilgrim presents two heaping slabs of extended doom, “Forsaken Man” b/w “Quest”.

What It Is…
Still in their teens, members of Pilgrim supply a sonically savvy construct of what was wrought long before they were thought (of). “Forsaken Man”, is a classic sludge riff ala Sabbath’s eponymous track evoking Sisyphus dragging that frickin’ rock up that frickin’ mountainside for the one zillionth time. Ritual chants enter in the latter part of the song reminding me of that great old Black & white Brit-flick “Horror Hotel”.

The B-side titled “Quest” begins with a buzzing bass figure that sounds like someone forgot to take their beer bottle off the amp cabinet (that’s a good thing), followed by a massive guitar riff supporting the Ozzy-esque vocal. Approximately halfway through its 7 inute journey, the song changes gears picking up speed and a new riff before returning to grinding goodness for its coda.

Grab It…
Offering a 21st century alternative to CD purchase, Electric Assault serves up a “name your own price” download with 320 bit-rate MP3 through FLAC quality options. In keeping with old school ethos the two track demo will also be available as a remastered, super limited & hand numbered, release of 100 audio cassettes. What, no 8-Tracks?

EAR’s to the Future
Ultimately Electric Assault Records honcho Henry Yuan intends to keep the label offerings unique, limited, and in the analog domain. His next outing, planned for Fall 2011, will be a vinyl release of Natr’s demo recordings and he has Sweden’s Sonic Ritual in his sites for early 2012. Also on the horizon is a selection of EAR T-shirts and swag for the fashionably heavy.

The irrepressible, though often deadpan, Mr. Yuan has been keeping it gloomy online as a blogger for Revolver magazine. You can catch up with his musings here. I wish him success in his quest to bring some doom into your day.

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Music Photography

Photo Gallery: Music of Stax Records @ Highline Ballroom

Stax Bassist “Duck” Dunn lays down the low end of soul.
Eddie Floyd, Vocals; Steve Cropper, Guitar; Donald “Duck” Dunn, Bass; Lester Snell, Keyboards; Anton Fig, Drums. Full coverage of this show can be found here.

Click any image to enlarge and launch viewer. All photos copyright 2011 Peter Parrella.

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Music Photography

The Music of Stax Records @ Highline Ballroom, NYC

Click Image to Enlarge

Full Photo Gallery is here.

A Brotherhood of Soul

On Sunday evening June 26, 2011 Manhattan’s Highline Ballroom heated up for a soul revue featuring The Music of Stax Records. With the neo-soul movement in full bloom and folks intent on partying like it’s 1965, there’s no better time to turn attention to the musicians who originally forged that sound. If you hear song titles like “Soul Man”, “Green Onions” and “Dock of the Bay” you could probably sing, hum or whistle those tunes in a heartbeat. They have become part of the world’s cultural memory. If you hear the names Steve Cropper or Donald “Duck” Dunn, the response might be less automatic. In truth those tunes and so many others like “In the Midnight Hour” would not exist without those gentlemen and their cohorts of the time organist Booker T. Jones and their drummer the late Al Jackson Jr..

As The MG’s and part of the “house band” for Stax Records in Memphis Tennesee, these musicians built on the promise Elvis made ten years earlier with a mixture of country and blues that came to be known as “soul music”. It’s not the Motown kind of soul music which was quite purposefully pop in comparison. Stax stayed a lot closer to the chicken coop and while the label’s stars could spruce it up in shark skin and mohair with the best of them you always got the feeling that Wilson Picket might cut you; Diana Ross – well – probably not.

Raise A Hand!

The evening opened with Cropper and Dunn, working with keyboardist Lester Snell and Paul Schaefer Late Night Band drummer Anton Fig, playing some of their classic instrumentals. They effectively laid out the signature bass grooves, buzzing Hammond B3 and stinging guitar licks of “Hip-Hug-Her”, “Booker-Loo”, “Time Is Tight”, “Soul Limbo” and of course “Green Onions”. Cropper, showcasing his sparse playing style, made every note count on the melody of “Summertime”. “Duck” and Steve have been life long friends and play with an intuitive ease to prove it. It’s all done with an almost imperceptible nod, a half smile, or sometimes a bemused stare. It’s fun to watch these guys having fun.

When singer Eddie Floyd was introduced to the stage and launched into “Raise A Hand” the show shifted to high gear. Just one day past his 74th birthday Floyd was a dynamo traversing the stage continuously, working up a sweat and pulling pretty ladies out of the audience to dance with him. The audience responded in kind, and quickly got on their feet dancing along to classic tunes like “Knock On Wood” and “634-5789 (Soulsville USA)”, both authored by Floyd. “On A Saturday Night” had the audience singing along oblivious to the fact that it was really a “school night”.

Play It Steve!

As expected set ender “Soul Man” blew the lid off the place. Current recognition of the Stax label’s monumental contribution music can be traced in part to the continued success of Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi’s “The Blues Brothers”. A loving and hilarious homage to the music they loved. “It’s always on cable TV” Cropper noted. “New” Blues Brothers joined Floyd on stage for this number, trading lead lines, mock boxing and ultimately genuflecting to kiss the ring of the soul pontif.

The band gifted the Highline crowd with a surprise performance of “Dock of the Bay” as the encore; the posthumously released Otis Redding song apparently one that Floyd had declined to cover. But, with a pinch of “Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa (Sad Song)” thrown in for spice it turned into a fitting and respectful remembrance and closed the show with the audience whistling its plaintive refrain.

A Royale Salute

Steve Cropper’s new album titled “Dedicated” is due for release in early August. It’s a salute to the music of early R&B group The “5” Royales and guitarist Pete Pauling. The star studded CD includes performances by Steve Winwood, Bettye Lavette, Sharon Jones, Brian May, Delbert McClinton Spooner Oldham, B B King, Lucinda Williams, Steve Jordan. Promises to be an exceptional listen. Pre-order link is below.

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Music SkeletonPete Says

Brooklyn’s Street Sounds Hosts Gretsch Guitar Day

Saturday June 18, 2011
While many weathered the heat to get gander at aquatically adorned Mermaid Parade revelers, the real Brooklyn VIP Party was going down at Bay Ridge’s Street Sounds Music Store, in the shadow of the Verrazano Bridge as we like to say. It was a special day and those in the know packed Rocky Sciano’s family run business to take in the beautiful and voluptuous curves of those American designed classics – Gretsch Guitars. You may know Gretsch instruments as the Rock-A-Billy wreckers painted up in delicious Hot Rod colors, or maybe the country picker’s choice in the hands of Chet Atkins, or maybe the hell’s bells ringing red double cutaway Jet Firebird of AC/DC’s Malcolm Young . “Who’s Next”? “Quadrophenia”? – all Pete Townshend’s 6120, gifted to him by Joe Walsh. Django – Gretsch. Eddie Cochran – Gretsch. Got the point?

Homecoming and History

The Gretsch family company started its life in Brooklyn NYC in 1883 making banjos and drums for marching bands. They initiated their historic line of guitars in 1954. For this special event Fred Gretsch III and Product Specialist Joe Carducci paid a visit to original home turf bringing along California calendar girl Kim Falcon and top-notch picker Paul Pigat, AKA Cousin Harley. Of course the afternoon was all about the gear; the star item being the prototype of Gretsch’s 1957 Duo Jet George Harrison replica, reproduced down to the rust on the Bigsby vibrato spring. With only 60 of these puppies being produced worldwide, this Harrison family authorized gem was a thrill to ogle slowly revolving in its display case. Along with the Harrison collectors item Street Sounds showed off walls hung with beautiful examples of the expansive Gretsch line and District Product Manager David Waters was on hand throughout the afternoon to offer attendees help and information on specific models.

As part of the festivities, Mssrs. Gretsch and Carducci presented “The Fred and Joe Show” highlighting the company’s history and key artists. It was augmented to include information about the convoluted journey of George’s Duo Jet. It’s a great story, you can read it here. Raffle tickets were chosen by Ms. Falcon (with a little help from Rocky’s mom). Prizes included heaps of Gretsch merch like T-shirts, playing cards, Zippo Lighters and bolo ties. In addition, two lucky participants won killer Gretsch guitars. Paul Pigat played some smokin’ rock-a-billy, a smooth take on Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust”, and taught a compact lesson on the art of Travis picking. Up and coming group Foxy Studs (Joe on guitar, Christina on drums, Tammie singing and Elia on Bass) gave the audience a look at and listen to the future of Gretsch guitar and drum players. After the raffles and presentation Fred and Kim spent time meeting fans and signing autographs on calendars, posters and even a few guitars.

Whoa! Haven’t seen you since the Fort Hamilton High School “Battle of the Bands” in 1972

The event was like old home week for local musicians and brought out players young and umm…seasoned from the surrounding neighborhoods. It is just so cool that so many of us have kept the faith and kept playing. There were some Prodigal Children, a Rockingham or two, John “The Cat” Gatto from – genuflect now – The Good Rats, even a couple of members of Dance Half Done. Modern Drummer editor Billy Amendola was on hand as was Piercing Metal’s main mensch Ken Pierce.

The special day continued into evening with a walking tour at the original factory site – 60 Broadway in Williamsburg. Apparently, the pioneering Gretsch family beat the hipster invasion to the punch by over 100 years!

P.S.
The Frosted Pink Cupcake Lollipops were mind blowing! – no that’s not a psychedelic tribute band.

The photos below tell the story of a wonderful time had by all. Click any image to launch the gallery. (All photos copyright 2011, Peter Parrella)