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The Catholic proclivity for placing saints and crosses and other...

thedevilsharlot — Wed, 30 May 2012 18:04:00 -0400

The Catholic proclivity for placing saints and crosses and other assorted bronze junk atop Roman and Egyptian monuments really drove me nuts. Did Trajan’s Column really need a statue of Peter on it? It just feels like such a cloying ostentatiousness. Maybe the next time I read some Renaissance history, I’ll cheer a little harder for the Reformation.

I got into Quest For Fire’s 2010 album while I was gone....

thedevilsharlot — Wed, 30 May 2012 17:35:00 -0400

I got into Quest For Fire’s 2010 album while I was gone. It felt like a natural progression from their first album, which I liked a lot, and I love the cover art. A lot of modern bands seem to rock this type of bottom-heavy distortion, and I really need to dig around the internet and figure out what their set-up is. Hopefully because they’re a Canadian band, their equipment will be easy to track down.

I took a few newish albums with me to Italy and they were pretty...

thedevilsharlot — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:32:06 -0400

I took a few newish albums with me to Italy and they were pretty hit and miss. My favourite has to be 4 by Rotor, a German post-rock band that’s been putting out records since 2001. Their fourth album is filled with tons of great riffs and enviable guitar tones. I need to go and track down some more stuff by them for sure.

Constantine’s Arch has seen better days, but that was one...

thedevilsharlot — Mon, 28 May 2012 22:09:00 -0400

Constantine’s Arch has seen better days, but that was one hell of a blue sky.

As usual I didn’t post these songs in the right order. I...

thedevilsharlot — Mon, 28 May 2012 21:27:00 -0400

As usual I didn’t post these songs in the right order. I really thought I’d done something from Ramases’ Space Hymns before, but as I haven’t, here’s the opening track, Life Child. It has about 50 seconds of ambient flute stuff, but after that, it’s one of the best psychedelic guitar pieces ever recorded, and it has one of my favourite guitar solos.

Though Ramases died in 1978, a significant fan network has built up around his two albums. If you want to read about him and his career, there’s an extremely detailed fan site here run by Brian Currin.

I’d never thought to look for another Ramases record after...

thedevilsharlot — Mon, 28 May 2012 21:16:00 -0400

I’d never thought to look for another Ramases record after listening to the debut, Space Hymns, because it seemed so unlikely to me that a record company would twice back a guy who claimed to be the reincarnation of a Pharaoh, destined to spread through the world the truths he’d learned about the universe during his multi-millennia trip through the after-life.

But Vertigo was such a company, and apparently Ramases (Barrington Frost) had a fair bit of charisma since he scored the services of Royal Philharmonic Orchestra members for this record. I love Ramases’ first album for its unabashed strangeness and eclectic psychedelic moments, but Glass Top Coffin might actually be a lot better. Its songs feel more cohesive, all focussed on a progressive rock space opera that unfolds at just the right pace.

The Vatican Museum was huge, and I hadn’t learned to turn...

thedevilsharlot — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:17:00 -0400

The Vatican Museum was huge, and I hadn’t learned to turn the camera off between seeing things, so it actually died before I got to any of the paintings. Luckily I got to all the Greek and Roman statues, like Laocoon here.

Lindisfarne’s second album,Fog On The Tyne, was just as...

thedevilsharlot — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:56:24 -0400

Lindisfarne’s second album,Fog On The Tyne, was just as magical as the first, full of lots of short folk songs. I love the amount of harmonica that’s played on this album, and all of the vocalists have wonderful British voices. Some people think that most of the songs are short because their record company was pressing them to produce records too quickly, but I think some of it has to do with the band pursuing more of a traditional blues and country style without a lot of psychedelic touches like lengthy soloing.

Smith, the late-60s act featuring Gayle McCormick’s...

thedevilsharlot — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:29:05 -0400

Smith, the late-60s act featuring Gayle McCormick’s fantastic vocals, is another band whose second album I’ve only recently come across. Their debut album, A Group Called Smith, is one of my favourite psychedelic records, and this one, Minus-Plus, has already claimed a lot of my listening time. They still had this weird tendency to under-use McCormick. The guys aren’t bad singers exactly, but it just seems crazy not to sub her in on a verse occasionally.

The first thing we went to in Rome was St. Peter’s...

thedevilsharlot — Tue, 22 May 2012 22:51:00 -0400

The first thing we went to in Rome was St. Peter’s Basilica, which may have been a mistake since I wasn’t really good at using the camera at that point, so most of what I have came out blurry. As though trying to make me feel the pressure of my camera fumbling, the first thing the tour took us to was Michelangelo’s Pietà.

Stained Glass started out as a Beatles cover band, and this...

thedevilsharlot — Tue, 22 May 2012 22:14:18 -0400

Stained Glass started out as a Beatles cover band, and this song, Piggy Back Ride and the Camel, really drives that home with its kazoo tomfoolery.

I’d been told that Stained Glass had released 2 albums,...

thedevilsharlot — Tue, 22 May 2012 22:03:00 -0400

I’d been told that Stained Glass had released 2 albums, but I’d only ever come across Aurora, the follow-up record. Just before I went to Italy, I found a copy of their debut, Crazy Horse Road, and it’s most of what I listened to while away. It’s so good that I’m going to post a pair of songs off of it. This one’s called Light Down Below.

It turns out that the band put out a number of great singles, bundled onto a CD reissue of this album because none of them wound up on Stained Glass’ LPs.

My blogging hiatus has been due to a two week trip to Italy, far...

thedevilsharlot — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:44:29 -0400

My blogging hiatus has been due to a two week trip to Italy, far from my music collection and without an Internet connection. Won’t be back until the 19th, but then I’ll share some of my 1200+ photos and the albums (all new to me) that I loaded onto my iPod to tide me over on trains and planes.

Photo

thedevilsharlot — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:13:38 -0400

Wigwam’s second album is a progressive rock masterpiece....

thedevilsharlot — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 18:00:15 -0400

Wigwam’s second album is a progressive rock masterpiece. Half of the Finnish band’s material would feel at home in a Clapton set, slow jamming blues songs with tasteful guitar and organ flourishes, while the others, like this song Frederick & Bill, borrow heavily from Canterbury prog influences and feature great jazzy guitar riffs. I found this long interview of the band’s keyboard player which is worth checking out if you’re interested in the history of Finnish rock.

My room-mate and I have been devouring this album over the last...

thedevilsharlot — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:49:47 -0400

My room-mate and I have been devouring this album over the last few days. Friendly Strangers are basically what I think most indie bands ought to sound like. They’ve got a smattering of banjo, viola, and accordion on this record, set to a number of different styles. They’ve got a good sense of humour, as you’ll see in the lyrics and in the descriptions of the band that they’ve put onto their website:

Innocent bystanders have described Friendly Strangers’ music as “really pretty except for that one song” and “like that other band but not really at all.”

Pretentious folks have described Friendly Strangers songs as “modern Americana sewn to the corpse of a prominent early 20th century poet” or “a collection of spiteful hymns sprinkled with rosemary and carefully burned about the edges.”

Photo

thedevilsharlot — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:40:13 -0400

Cirith Ungol was an American metal group most active during the...

thedevilsharlot — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 22:25:09 -0400

Cirith Ungol was an American metal group most active during the 80s that started off sounding like a 70s hard rock act akin to early Judas Priest. They weren’t really revivalists, though; they’d formed in the early 70s but just didn’t manage to score a record deal until 1980. I think the album’s cover is the perfect level of corny for a record like this. It matches the band’s constantly over-the-top vocal and guitar theatrics that make their songs so fun to listen to.

I went on a bit of a music dig this week so that I’ll have...

thedevilsharlot — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:57:03 -0400

I went on a bit of a music dig this week so that I’ll have lots of new albums to listen to on my flight to Italy. I think I’ve come across a bunch of promising stuff.

Quest For Fire is a Canadian psychedelic rock band that put out their self-titled debut in 2009. They sound similar to Tame Impala, so like a spaced out Sam Roberts, but they write longer, open-ended songs in the vein of post-rock groups like Pelican. I have a feeling this record is going to get a lot of attention from me this summer.

typicoyle: (via sleepingships, giraffebones)

thedevilsharlot — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:54:05 -0400

typicoyle:

(via sleepingships, giraffebones)