Reccomendation

If you are ever looking for a place to buy wax in Vancouver, Neptoon Records is the place to go. Their selection of early 70's rock n' roll is unsurpassed in the city. Props to Ben for ordering in all that crazy stuff, including plenty of obscure Japanese psych and long out of print British hard rock. Great used section too, everything is in good shape and reasonably-priced. Would that I had way more money to spend on records, I'd be in here every day.

Amalgamation

We all know that the first four Black Sabbath albums should be required listening for every man woman and child on earth. That's a self-evident truth. But what about the others? Mid-period Sabbath is often criminally overlooked due to the drug-fueled excess, legal wrangling and just plain bad ideas that plagued the band from 1973-1975. As much as the band's personal lives may have been falling apart at the time, there was still enough left in the tank to produce two great albums in Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath and Sabotage that are only disappointing if held to the impossibly high standard the band had already set for itself during the incomparable main sequence of Black Sabbath, Paranoid, Master Of Reality and Volume 4. Until 1976, it was never a lack of good material that hampered the band, but rather an abundance of half-baked ideas and poor decisions. The torrid pace with which the earlier material was cut compared to the 2 year layover between Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Sabaotage suggest not only that the ideas may have been slower in coming but also that they were more heavily laboured upon when they arrived. At that point in their career a very successful band, Sabbath was given access to studio time and equipment that had previously been unavailable, and the temptation to make use of it caused a shift in their sound towards something denser and more progressive. Not that this was necessarily a bad thing, as such studio flourishes like Geezer's nifty overdriven echo-wah bass on "The Writ" or the acoustic coda to "Symptom Of The Universe" make clear, but the case I'm making with this here riff sandwich is that Sabbath could still move mountains when they just locked in and did what they did best. Hey, no one's done torpid, doomy drug rock better than these guys before or since, so why not listen to some of their lesser-beloved material with a fresh set of ears?

Side A
Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath
Symptom Of The Universe
Killing Yourself To Live
Megalomania

Side B
Hole In The Sky
Sabba Cadabra
A National Acrobat
The Writ

How's that for a smokin' platter of rock n' roll? No "Fluff," "Who Are You," or "Superczar," just slow, heavy riffs and titanic drums with everyone's favorite acid-blasted hippy pleading for peace and love. And really, isn't that all you ever wanted?

Canterbury

I was jamming on Caravan's In The Land Of Grey and Pink and couldn't help but notice that the side-long suite that formed one half of the album was much more interesting than the whimsical ditties on the other. I think the thing that turned me off early 70's prog, especially the less guitar-centric strains, was that when I was younger I couldn't get past the silliness of it all. To me, songs about having golf balls raining down on you just isn't as cool as summoning the fire witch to the court of the crimson king. Some of that stuff just strikes me as too precious. Rush might be something of a laughingstock, but those guys knew where their balls were until at least Signals. They've since found 'em again too, which is more than someone could say for Eric Clapton these days.

It's symptomatic of what was happening to rock music in the mid '70s. Too many bands got hung up on trying to make records with songs for radio when they should have been following their more otherworldly impulses. If anything, Pink Floyd proved this kind of thing could be profitable, but most others were not as lucky or as good. And Pink Floyd still had balls even when making commercially successful records. The result was a lot of partly-interesting records that are broken up by embarrassing radio tracks. This goes for lots of different kinds of rock, not just prog, and it was one of the reasons rock seemed to run dry by the late 70's. The exploratory spirit of the early psych, space, garage, prog, and protometal bands was strangled by the demands of the radio mafia. This is why punk, and more importantly heavy metal had to happen.

I these days, vintage sounding 70's prog rock is being made by bands like Astra, Diagonal, Litmus and Zombi to name a few. Most of them have latched on to the stylistic signifiers of their fore bearers while adding some much-needed muscle. This generation has grown up with hard rock as a part of its basic diet, unlike many early 70's musicians who came at things from a folk, blues, jazz, classical, experimental or psychedelic background. Heavy riff passages are alternated judiciously with spacey drones, off-time jamming and phasered up guitar solos. Its heartwarmingly authentic, but these bands are synthesizing the best of their influences into a sound that is powerful and exciting again. Prog rock may not really be progressive anymore, but that doesn't mean there isn't anything worthwhile to be gained from continuing to mine the style. Even more established acts like Black Mountain have allowed this style to influence their work. It seems that bulking up has done wonders for the musicians in these bands.

Commerce

Everyone who liked indie rock in high school grew up and got a job at a marketing firm.

Rekindle

Turns out university is actually a lot of work. But here's a little something for you: Julian Cope's Japrock sampler top 50. Read his book Japrocksampler and have your mind blown.

Thanks to J.P. for finding this.

Continuity

So I am back from my trip, good times were to be had. However, I've decided to focus my energies into something that is longer than the blog format will allow. I'm writing a retrospective of the decade in rock music. Also, school is starting once again, and I'm currently obsessed with playing the World War II campaign in Civilization II. Operation Sea Lion was a success! Anyways I'll probably post it on here when its done, but the more I do, the more I find that needs coverage. Anyways, I'll probably be updating about as often as I usually do, which is to say, not very.

Here's a few capsule reviews for ya...

Jesu - Jesu (2006)
Justin Broadrick's opus. The man has spent the better part of three decades redefining metal, as a member of Napalm Death, Godflesh and other shorter-lived projects, but this is my favourite record of his. All votes for Scum will be counted though. This record is absolutely colossal. Each titanic track marches at a snail's pace, like fog rolling inexorably across the horizon. Broadrick uses dense waves of distortion and syrupy atmospherics to craft music that is titanically heavy yet soothes the listener like a warm blanket. It's easy to get lost in the haze, but it's not really difficult listening. A bliss-out metal record.

Candlemass - Nightfall (1987)
I've always been a huge fan of Candlemass's debut, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, but had never really spent much time with the later records featuring Messiah Marcolin on vocals until recently. While Nightfall does not top Epicus in terms of doomy ambience or quality material, fans of Marcolin's more operatic vocals may prefer this release, which combines the darkness and gloom of prime Sabbath with the grandeur of classic heavy metal. Bassist and main songwriter Leif Edling possesses an astounding supply of awesome riffs, and the advanced guitar heroics of Lars Johansson conjure majestic cathedral spires.

sHEAVY - Celestial Hi-Fi (2000)
These Canadians do a cool heavy rock thing better than most of their stoner-rock contemporaries. Singer Steve Hennessy is an absolute dead ringer for Ozzy, so the Sabbath comparison get's tossed around a lot, but this record is spacier than the masters themselves ever got. sHEAVY can write a song, so the best tracks allow the band to rise above mimicry, but we're never too far off from Sabbath Bloody Sabbath territory. If that's not a problem for you, then this is a fine hard rock album. When the band stretches out, as on album-closer "Tales From The Afterburner" their ensemble playing really shines. Most of the songs here are in the 5 to 6 minute range, so there is plenty of space for the songs to roam without ever losing the listener's attention. Other standout tracks are "What's Up Mr. Zero?" and a re-recorded version of "At The Mountains Of Madness" which was previously released on their 1996 album Blue Sky Mind.

Sabbatical

I'm fed up with working for the man, so I'm going to go explore the British Columbian wilderness for about 3 weeks. See you guys when I get back. I'll definitely have lots to discuss when I get back, because I'm pretty much going to be tuned in to some heavy frequencies the whole time. In the meantime, enjoy a completely unrelated video of wintertime driving to accompany Sun Araw's excellent "Heavy Deeds." Hell, I didn't even watch it, just dig the groove, maaaaaaan. Turn it up and let it wash over you while you do something else. Droney Psych -- it's the new sound.