On the Old Grey Whistle Test.
Put it on, enjoy! I saw this band on this tour at the Bottom Line, and a little love got so much stronger.
Category Archives: Breakfast Blend
Breakfast Blend: Bettie Serveert
Whenever Gene posts the Raveonettes I’m reminded of this Dutch band I liked in the early 90s. Not as shimmery as the nettes, not really that similar (too slackerish maybe), but it has the layered guitars thing.
Breakfast Blend: The Cochran Brothers
Eddie Cochran became a rock legend. Hank Cochran was not related, and didn’t become a star (but did have a long career as a songwriter and performer, with seven songs that made the country charts), but the two performed as the Cochran Brothers in 1956 and recorded some sides. I’ve been listening to Eddie Cochran a lot lately, but knew nothing about this group until I found these songs on a “greatest hits” album. These tunes weren’t hits when they were made, in Southern California, but what a fantastic rockin’ sound! Eddie, by the way, would be 17 here.
Breakfast Blend: Under Pressure
This blends with last night’s post. That was rehearsal for a big stadium show, this is the show. You decide.
Breakfast Blend: The Obituaries
Portland band from the mid-aughts. Say something once, why say it again? Or why not say it over and over? Good band name.
Breakfast Blend: (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
Never heard this until today. This is PJ Harvey and Bjork doing a version of (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, which starts slow but pays off. From 1994.
Way different than Chan Marshall’s folkie version, which I happened to see live in 2000 at the Knitting Factory. Nice sounding, but what’s the point? She doesn’t even say, I’m trying to make some girl!
Aw heck, Devo should be here, though the video is as misbegotten as Marshall’s version. Devo’s music tells the story, however. I bought the Satisfaction/Mongoloid single before Devo’s album came out. Couldn’t wait.
Breakfast Blend: Alison Mosshart
The Pretty Little Demons named Alison Mosshart one of their heroes. Mosshart was in the Kills, a rock band with a DIY vibe and spare sounds that included the guitarist James Hince and a drum machine and recorded from 2001 to 2011. Their last tour was opening for Queens of the Stone Age a few years ago, though they’re also reportedly working on a new elpee.
In 2009 Mosshart started the Dead Weather with Jack White, Dean Fertita and Jack Lawrence. Like so much of Jack White’s ouvre, the cuts I’ve listened to from the Dead Weather have some great moments (the guitar solo in this one is solid), but the rock just doesn’t swing, it’s all fits and starts, angles and changes. If you can’t sing or dance along, and it doesn’t make you shout with it into the dark night, is it really rocking?
Breakfast Blend: Delilah
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band didn’t only rock. But they did bring heaviness to moments that might have been kitsch.
But, of course, for those of us stateside, it was a Welshman with an awesome set of pipes, who turned this piece of shite into a hit.
Most interestingly, in recent times, Tom Jones has been criticized for advocating violence against women. He’s not having it.
Sure, good to talk about content, but this is a murder ballad, a form steeped in murder. And shouldn’t our art reflect all the base impulses? And if it doesn’t, can it even be called art?
Breakfast Blend: We Are the Warriors
We start off with a Norwegian punk band called Rowdy and Raunchy, which sounds promising, but they have made an energetic little song that sounds like bad theme song for a jeggings brand (whatever that is, I don’t know).
Coincidentally, a Jamaican band in the 70s called the Gladiators did a smash up job with a song also called We Are the Warriors.
You be the judge. Who sounds like warriors?