Produced by Rumours keyboardist Bob Andrews, the Equators’ well-integrated (no pun intended) hybrid of ska, reggae and rock (credit the rhythm section all around) is musically, if not lyrically, similar to much of the output of the contemporaneous 2 Tone bands. This all-black sextet leaves out the heavy messages and aims for the feet, making…
The only album by this talented Boston rock band with strong, melodic material and a slightly overdramatic vocalist was unfortunately issued on a label that was breathing its corporate last. Two standout songs — “When You’re Young” and “One Last Night” — suggest abundant power-pop promise, but weak production and a crucial lack of promotion…
This London quartet (named after a Charlie Rich Sun recording) was one of the first English rockabilly bands to emerge at a time when the music press was looking for the “next big thing” after punk. On its debut, Blowin’ Up a Storm, Whirlwind — whether by design or simply limited competence — offers up…
This Liverpool quartet’s sole LP is humorless Bowiesque dance-rock, produced by former Bowie collaborator Tony Visconti. Leader Philip Franz Jones, who wrote all but one of the songs, performs on sax, flute and keyboards in addition to providing mannered lead vocals. For all his versatility, Jones’ songs are not particularly memorable; the dour, solipsistic views…
Hardcore meets hippie on Rock’n’Roll Nightmare as this San Francisco band — generally known as RKL — sings about nuclear meltdowns, pollution, militarism, greedy promoters, prejudice, hypocrites and critics and how to cope with it all (namely, sarcasm). If you dig the trip, the band is awesome and so are the accoutrements, namely a 24-page…
After releasing three Australian albums in the early ’80s, Adelaide’s Paul Kelly put together a quartet called the Coloured Girls (wisely billed as the Messengers in the US; the international dichotomy was later resolved by dumping the original moniker entirely). Originally a 24-song double album back home, Gossip arrived in America as a fifteen-track single…
Uplifting Afrobeat, uptight contemporary funk and sizzling rock’n’roll collide with delightful results on the merry gumbo of the Bonedaddys’ first LP. The large interracial LA outfit — essentially a citywide sideband — takes a knowledgeable approach to exotica (confidently covering two Manu Dibango songs) and a witty pen to localism. “Zouk Attack,” co-written by Bonedaddy…
This Cambridge, England-based band includes a jazz drummer on keyboards and Kirsty MacColl’s brother Neill on guitar. On Walking the Ghost Back Home, the Bible covers a lot of musical territory, from airy Bruce Hornsby-esque rock (“Graceland”) to Traffic-like jazz-rock (the title track) to a U2-ish tribute to Mahalia Jackson (“Mahalia”). One song recalls early…
How one feels about Hothouse Flowers depends very much on one’s attitude towards (and tolerance for) bombast. The five members of this Dublin group are all talented musicians; vocalist/keyboardist Liam O’Maonlai has a fine voice and sings from the heart. But there’s a tendency to bludgeon virtually every song to death, slowly building each up…
This semi-electric LA rock quartet is earnest enough on its Peter Case-produced debut EP but, with the exception of “Wonderful World Tonight,” a likable and evocative update of the “Goin’ Up the Country” ethos, none of these half dozen New Campfire Songs is likely to show up alongside “Blowin’ in the Wind” at the next…
Considering the mediocrities that constantly get signed out of the Hollywood club scene, it’s amazing that a band like the Leonards (who originally hail from Detroit) can deliver a red-hot seven-cut indie album and still be ignored by the majors. The Leonards contains nothing but searing, sneering garage rock’n’roll — ’60s in construction, ’80s in…
A dozen years after making his album debut (on the Beat’s Special Beat Service) duetting with Ranking Roger on “Pato and Roger a Go Talk,” Pato Banton (born Patrick Murray) returned to these shores with Never Give In. Mainly backed by Birmingham’s Studio Two house band, which provides strong reggae riddims punctuated by colorful horns…
Durutti Column — the historical name comes from the Spanish Civil War — is essentially guitarist Manchester Vini Reilly (who began his career as a punk, in the late-’70s Ed Banger & the Nosebleeds), although he has used other musicians in the studio and tours with other players. In the late ’80s, Reilly branched out,…
The unmistakable footprints of a legend do traipse indolently through 19 Years; what you get in the workaday worlds of Alex Chilton’s individual albums, however, is a lot more mortal. So much faith has been invested in this man who has never claimed to be anything more than what he is — an unhappy, standoffish…
This Tokyo trio, led — believe it or not — by John (no last name) on vocals and guitar and Yoko (Fujiwara) on bass, toured both American coasts in 1981. Despite its title, the album is less influenced by current trends in terpsichore than by the group of performers that participated in the famous June…
Singer/guitarist Roy Loney, who was the frontman for the Flamin Groovies during that band’s original rockabilly/R&B-inspired incarnation, continued in a similar vein in his solo career, rock’n’rolling with the devotion of a true believer. After leaving the Groovies in 1975, Loney assembled the Phantom Movers and maintained the rootsy spirit he had brought to the…
It’s difficult to understand why the dB’s’ first two albums — both well conceived and entirely accessible — had such a hard time getting released in the band’s own country. Formed in New York by four musicians who had moved up from North Carolina, they drew inspiration from ’60s pop psychedelia (and ’70s pop disciples…
It’s Immaterial was the Liverpool duo of John Campbell and Jarvis Whitehead plus myriad friends (including the Christians, whose Henry Priestman was an Itsy in the group’s early days). On Life’s Hard, It’s Immaterial cooks up a fascinating musical hybrid that touches variously on synth-pop, atmospheric art-rock, recitation and a unique brand of English country…
This Toronto quartet which initially included Daniel Lanois’ bass-playing sister Jocelyn, once of Martha and the Muffins, played a lovely brand of spartan atmospheric folk-rock somewhere between the Cowboy Junkies and 10,000 Maniacs. On Red Earth, what’s not played seems nearly as important as what is; the ample sonic space makes the sound feel big…
How ironic that the band from the class of ’77 that seemed to stand least for the tenets of punk at the outset should wind up the one that remained truest to them over the long haul. The Jam’s refusal to compromise their ideals and integrity during a six-year career tends to polarize reactions to…
