Shiner The Egg DeSoto/Son Of Man 2012 (Repress)

Shiner The Egg DeSoto/Son Of Man 2012 (Repress) CAT #SOM-002

People love this album and swear by it.  However, when it came out in 2001, I could have gave a shit less.  1996, I thought Splay was one of the greatest things I had ever heard.  High school age boys love angry rock music and that fit the bill.  I remember being excited to get my hands on their follow-up, Lula Divinia which was released in 1997.  However, the glow of Splay started to wear off quickly.  The songs become incredibly long and pretentious, shoegazer moments mixed in with odd time signatures and even stranger song structures.  There was nothing immediate on Lula Divinia so you couldn't get sucked into all it.  By 2000 when Starless came out, I really didn't care anymore.  I believe I picked up Starless cheap in a used bin and was even more turned off by it than I was by Lula.

I had completely moved on and forgot about Shiner when The Egg came out in 2001.  I never even picked up.  Then, several years ago I became obsessed with collecting all the locals I once listened to in the 90's on vinyl.  Since then, I've been searching feverishly for a copy of Splay.  I still haven't found it, but last year while searching the internet for it, I discovered that Son of Man did a limited vinyl pressing of  The Egg for the band's reunion tour.  At this point in my local vinyl obsession, I wasn't just trying to collect favorites, I was just obsessed with finding any local artist on vinyl, so I needed this.

Not knowing too much about The Egg, I read up on it pre-purchase.  Damn, if it isn't widely considered the band's masterpiece.  Anxious and worried that the hype was going to ruin this LP for me, I was pleased upon the first listen.  Everything is so crisp and perfect on the album, there are moments that are immediate on it, namely the song "Top of the World," which could easily be mistaken for a Sunny Day Real Estate tune or a Radiohead tune, depending on which aspect you focus on.  But, even at first listen, you sense the band's direction on the LP, there's a definite groove and feel surrounding all the songs.

For the last year or so, I've spun this more than most albums I own.  Every time you put it on, you pick up something new, a nifty guitar riff buried in the background, a reprise to a previous song, a shift you didn't fully grasp the previous spin.  The band had clearly figured it out on this album.  Inevitably, it's still very pretentious with all it's shifts in song structure, but they found a way to make it more accessible.  They focused their efforts on creating a whole LP and experimenting throughout its entirety rather than trying to cram every good idea they had into a single song.  It's an amazing album, complex, and more rewarding after every listen.  If more people would have been listening to it when it was released, it would have reinvented and reinvigorated the then played out angular post-hardcore scene.

Truth About Cows
Top Of the World
Pills

Schwervon! Landlocked b/w Off Duty Trip Too Much Rock 2013

Schwervon! Landlocked b/w Off Duty Trip Too Much Rock 2013 CAT# 001

This 7" represents the best idea in local music of the year, if not ever.  Too Much Rock is a blog run by Sid Sowder who used to put out releases under the label Urinine.  His idea with this 7" series is unique.  He will select a local artist to record, he allows them one side for their own tune and he/his website picks a cover tune for the band to do.  He puts up the funds for the release, but doesn't recoup anything, the band gets the singles to sell.  Label loses, but the website gets to pick a cover tune.  Each single will be limited to only 500 and not be announced until they are being held in Sid Sowder's hands and ready for release.  Neat-O.

The band Schwervon! upon first glance doesn't seem all that local.  The male/female duo only recently came to KC from New York.  However, Matt Roth is from the area originally and gigged in local bands prior to moving to NYC.  He and his female counterpart, Nan Turner, have been self releasing under the moniker Schwervon! for some time.

The band's tune,"Landlocked", is tiny at just over two minutes.  Seeing how it's just a male/female duo and they cover the Raincoats on the B-Side, I'd like to call it twee-pop, but with all the guitar riffing, you can't call it that.  They chant the vocals and have a hip-hop breakdown, plus they even find time for a garage riff-tastic solo.  It's solid.  The Raincoats cover is, "Off Duty Trip," from the Raincoats debut album.  Schwervon! do a do a fine job with it, kind of hard tune to screw up.  They certainly make it less dissonant and punk than the Raincoats, this is a very pop-oriented cover (probably because Schwervon! are better musicians, it's hard to fake amateur-ness), and the "Professional" chant part in the song, Schervon! nail it.

Best apart about the release though, is the cover.  Man, I love this cover.  It's got this nifty little map drawing of Kansas from KC to Junction City, it shows these crude landmark drawings and now I want to visit things like the John Brown Memorial and William Allen White Memorial.

Schwervon! A Tune not on this 7"
Too Much Rock Blog and Website where you should go and buy this so they'll put out more.

Charlie Parker The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever Prestige 1973

Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, Max Roach The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever Prestige 1973 CAT #24024

2 years away from his death in 1955, Charlie Parker was invited to play in Toronto, Canada, with 4 other giants of Bebop.  Apparently, some well to do's in Canada decided they wanted an event, brainstormed and decided they'd invite the biggest innovators in bebop to come perform.  By this time, bebop wasn't the radical confusing scene Parker had started.  It was generally accepted as jazz (not "China Music" like Louis Armstrong once dubbed it), the innovations provided by Parker and Gillespie were now commonplace.

Surprisingly, they showed up to play.  Legends say Bud Powell was drunk from the onset, Gillespie was busy leaving the stage to check on a boxing match, and Parker was playing on a cheap alto sax with plastic parts.  It represents the last time Gillespie and Parker would collaborate on an album and finds Parker in good form despite being only two years away from heroin ending his life (he didn't die of an overdose, he died because he was an addict) and playing a cheap sax.  This has been released many times and under different names.  The first being Mingus' own Debut label entitled Jazz At Massey Hall.  This Prestige edition differs in that it contains the trio of just Mingus, Powell, & Roach (supposedly from a different night and also rumored to also have Art Tatum behind the keys rather than Powell).  But, those dudes aren't KC so don't have to spend much time arguing that.

The thing that this LP really showcases is the influence Parker had.  Kansas City, KS born, Kansas City, MO raised, the guy reinvented jazz.  There's pre-Bop and post-Bop, and Charlie Parker is Bebop.  The quintet he is a part of is his and legendary; he's the ringleader.  He's the one that showed them the way.  Even Gillespie, who was far more advanced in theory than anyone, wouldn't have found his true calling had he never heard Parker explode on a saxophone.  Throughout the album, Parker and Gillespie are stride for stride and he explodes on "Salt Peanuts" and "Wee".  He also finds his moments on the ballad "All The Things You Are."

And, I worried about this LP.  I mean, after all, it was two years before his death, could he be all that good at this point?  Of course, it's easy to forget, Parker died at age 36, he was 34 at the time of the recording and still cutting some of his best sides.

Wee

Yard Apes Weatherman B/W White As a Ghost Y-Tel 1985

Yard Apes Weatherman B/W White as a Ghost Y-Tel 1985 CAT#

I don't know a whole lot about the Yard Apes other than they were a Lawrence band, playing gigs with the likes of Get Smart!, Micronotz, and the Embos.  There is some connection to the Fresh Sounds label outside of their appearance on the Sounds From Middle America comps as the sleeve of this release is marked up with the Fresh Sounds logo on the inside.  However, from my understanding, the group self issued this and another single on their own, Y-Tel label.  Another thing I thought I heard about the group is like Get Smart!, they moved to Chicago to try their luck their, can't really confirm that, but I thought I picked that up somewhere.

They are a fairly cool group, limited catalog, but these two tracks were promising.  "Weatherman" draws heavily from British post punk and new wave.  Very dance-able rhythms, sharp angular guitars, and speak-sing lyrics.  This side plays in 33 1/3 RPM, the flip-side, "White As a Ghost" plays in 45 RPM.  "White As a Ghost" is far more new-wave friendly.  Chanted chorus, stylized vocals, very slick.  It's still got choppy, angular guitars, but it's pop sensibilities outshine any attempt to be ultra-hip.

It's cool stuff, I'm sure someone out there knows more about the group than me, feel free to drop a line and fill me in.

Marva Whitney It's My Thing Polydor/King 1970 (2012 Repress)

Marva Whitney It's My Thing Polydor/King 1969 (2011 Repress) CAT #PD 1062

One year ago today, Marva Whitney passed away.  She was Kansas City born and raised and started her career in KC.  She played the Kansas City scene, leading the group Tommy & the Derby's, did the Motown revue's and opened for touring artists when they passed through.  She was asked to tour with Bobby Bland and Little Richard, but turned both down opting to join the James Brown Revue as a featured vocalist as she thought it was the best move for her career.

It certainly was the best move, Brown did all he could do to make her successful as a part of his act.  During the shows, Marva Whitney would provide the audience a couple of songs while Brown rested.  He recorded her and provided her some of his best material.  There are singles cut for Federal and King while she hung with Brown.  There is also the above album, as well as live LP from the King years.  The title song of this LP, "It's My Thing (Part 1)" was released as the single, "It's My Thing (You Can't Tell Me Who To Sock It To)" and as a response to the Isley Brother's "It's Your Thing".  It represented her highest charting single.

While she never became a mainstream R&B artist, her time spent with James Brown kept her active and in front of large audiences.  The move to go with James Brown far exceeded anything she would get by backing Bobby Bland or Little Richard.  However, most say that this was among the most difficult times of her life.  When she moved back to Kansas City after her time with James Brown she told friends and family just how true the name "Hardest Working Man In Show Buisness" was.  Brown was known to work his artists relentlessly.  She had a child from her marriage to Kansas City soul singer, Harvey Whitney.  However, she was never able to spend time as a mother due to constant touring and recording.  Homesick, she left the Brown stable in 1970.

She would record some unsuccessful singles for the T-Neck label afterward.  Afterwards, she would marry Ellis Taylor, the owner and operator of Kansas City's Forte label and cut some sides.  After little success on the regional label, her recording career largely ended aside a few sporadic singles and one-off LPS.  She only briefly stopped performing and would later be a member of the J.B.'s All Stars which were a group of former Brown artists.  She didn't stop performing until 2010.

This LP represents her best work.  The material is top shelf and the players were the best in the business as they were Brown's backing band.  It is a compilation of mostly singles released for the King label, some of which we re-recorded for the LP, others that were not.  It's absurdly collectible due to it's scarcity and the fact that Whitney is one of the greatest female funk performers of all time.

The girl did not hold back, she's a screamer.  The band gets most of the attention by the collectors, the cuts have been heavily sampled throughout hip-hop, especially the track "Unwind Yourself."  But, Whitney gives these songs personality.  She's got to be the only women that could match Brown's delivery.  Further, she's got to be the only women allowed to shout out "Maceo!" when the groove needed to get deeper.  You're not going to find any ballads (well, there is "If You Love Me," but she screams that one out, too) or anything that would have played well to a white Motown crowd, this is brassy, funk, floor stompers meant for the live crowds.  There were plenty of noted soul diva's out there, but only a few funk divas like Whitney belting out tunes like this.

Unwind Yourself
It's My Thing (Live TV Performance)
You Got To Have a Job (Duet with James Brown)

Moondog More Moondog Prestige (4 Men With Beards 2009 Repress) 1956

Moondog More Moondog Prestige (4 Men With Beards Repress) 1956 CAT #4M176

The eccentric figure known as Moondog was born Louis Thomas Hardin in Marysville, Kansas in 1916.  He was moved to Wyoming as a young child, but would later move back to Southern Missouri where he lost his sight in a farming accident.

His father seemed like a pretty cool guy, he got his son to Iowa for specialized schooling for the blind.  There he began studying music.  It's documented that Moondog's father previously introduced Native American music to his son and encouraged his musical ability at a much earlier age.  As an adult he moved to New York and became the eccentric figure that made him famous.  He designed his own clothes that were modeled after the the Norse God Odin and parked himself on the streets of Manhattan.  He became known as the Viking of 6th Avenue for his appearance which was always bearded and wearing a helmet adorned with horns.  He did have an actual apartment of his own that was funded by his street performing, selling of compositions, and his own records, but oddly, he choose to live on the streets.  As a musician, he was respected by artists in the classical cannon and jazz scene of the day.  His records were primarily released by the, Prestige which was known mostly as a jazz label.

It's a far more interesting story than my quick synopsis, but the main point is this guy was an eccentric genius and from Kansas.  That's rad.  For the 1950's, this was highly experimental.  Today, it doesn't sound as alien, it's very percussion and rhythm heavy, it relies on street sounds and uses those sounds to create music rather than just add effect, there's also spoken word elements.  It's also very minimalist and sparse, his music is centered around rhythm and accompaniment is almost exclusively percussion instruments (some of which were invented by Moondog) with the occasional piano, wind or brass instrument or a vocal track.  Again, today some of these practices have become commonplace, but Moondog was avant-garde for the time.  Further, he also had the ability to take his ideas and condense them it into 3 minutes songs that appeal to a casual listener so despite his radical ideas, he never freaked people out with his compositions.  Those that were influenced by his music would handle that.

Tugboat Toccata
Autumn

Joe Walsh The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get Dunhill/ABC 1973

Joe Walsh The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get Dunhill/ABC 1973 CAT# DSX-50140

This is the second "Barnstorm" album from Wichita-Born Joe Walsh.  When Walsh left the James Gang, he formed a band called Barnstorm.  ABC put out the albums as solo LPS by Joe Walsh.  For the most part, it's Joe Walsh's thing, but the tunes are credited to Barnstorm Music and the Joe Vitale and Kenny Passarelli were members of a band with Joe Walsh at this time, not just his backing band.

The first song on the LP, "Rocky Mountain Way," is a monster.  It's a defining hard-rock song of the 1970's.  From there though, the album gets a bit soft.  Walsh explores soft rock and even Jazz inflicted tunes like the instrumental, "Midnight Moodies."  Despite solid songs like "Bookends", "Dreams," and "Days Gone By," they pale in comparison to "Rocky Mountain Way."

The album does have nice melodies, lots of cool instruments, good arrangements, all that stuff.  But, I could listen to Fleetwood Mac if I wanted clever soft rock, it's better.  It does have Joe Walsh's guitar, though.  He's good at that and probably the most famous Kansas born guitarist, ever?  I don't think there are too many that did as much with the instrument and established themselves as a player as much as he did.

Richard Pryor Introduces "Rocky Mountain Way"