unpiano: music

Stones Throw affiliate Egon started a label a while back called Now-Again records and has been putting out a consistent string of releases that we have overlooked for sometime. They recently started licensing albums from Zambia’s 70s “Zamrock” scene in conjunction with Zamrock pioneer Rikki Ililonga. Starting with the seminal bands Witch and Amanaz, Now-Again has begun the process of bringing to new light a collection of albums that were heavily influential to many US and British rock bands. Anyways the story of Zamrock is really interesting and you should read more about it here and if you need some persuading, just give a listen to the samples below. The first lines of Witch’s ‘Strange Dream’ are pretty amazing and seem super far away from my current reality – which makes it that much more interesting.

Witch – Strange Dream (From Lazy Bones)
Amanaz – Khala My Friend (From Africa)

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It’s freezing cold, raining like crazy and I’ve been trapped in the house all day trying to entertain my two stir crazy kids. I’ve played a thousand games of Jenga, built forts, built Legos, taught a few dirty jokes, broken up fights and showed them every funny cat video I could find on YouTube. I’ve pretty much exhausted every rainy day idea I could think of, and have now started playing amateur paleontologist by excavating “treasures” buried deep in our bursting-at-the-seams record wall. That’s where I unearthed this little gem, a record that many friends and I might have been conceived to now that I think about it (gross Mom and Dad). The soft, sultry sounds of a 70s California cum-bath.

Bread – Guitar Man

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Oh, hello Monday. It’s rainy and cold in San Francisco right now and sometimes it can be really hard to roll out of bed on a wet, gray morning. Luckily, there is something really relatable to that feeling in the chords Johnny Thunders plays throughout his classic anthem. It makes the cold walk to work that much more bearable. Thanks for dragging me out of bed Johnny.

Johnny Thunders – (You Can’t Put Your Arm Around A) Memory
Johnny Thunders – Great Big Kiss

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When two students at San Francisco City College met in 1977 they threw together a band called TuxedoMoon and started playing differnet spaces like Salons while their following quickly grew. Eventually they ended up breaking out by opening for Devo and getting signed to The Residents’ label Ralph Records. Thirty years later they are still going strong, (despite moving to Rotterdam to be a part of the electronic music scene there), they are still on tour and released their anniversary album in 2007. All San Francisco bands take note! You don’t have to start here, move to New York and then break up two years later. You can stay here and play music for thirty years and still get on the Downtown 81 Soundtrack. Okay, maybe that sort of thing only happened in the Seventies but.. please?

Tuxedomoon – No Tears
Tuxedomoon – Dark Companion

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Hey, how about a little powerpop classic, eh? This little gem from 20/20 should do. I know this should be really informative but I’m not Wikipedia, I’m just some drunk with a bunch of records and a computer. I’m pretty sure you could take an educated guess and say that, like 90% of powerpop bands from the 70’s, their career was cut short by the over-saturation of that stupid Knack song.

20/20 – Cheri

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Okay, this post is a blatant steal from Audrey, who used this song in the promo trailer for her upcoming dj night at Underground SF. I’m aware that it is sort of lame to steal a song from someone who is using it to promote their own music activity but I couldn’t resist. Besides, right now I’m talking about her night anyways so it’s sort of like promo or something anyways right? Nevermind, just go to her night when it happens. She has amazing taste in music (on par with a 50-year-old aging rocker) and it will be super fun. It was going to be on third Thursdays (ahem) but is now gonna be some other day. Just check her site for dates..

The Monochrome Set – Eine symphonie des Grauens
The Monochrome Set – Eine symphonie des Grauens (faster, dirty live version)

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So…what to say? There’s Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. British dudes with the blues, striving like so many other British dudes at the time with the blues to, well, play Blues. There’s the Mac that most people are familiar with, the hardy providers of arena rock circa late 70’s-now. While both incarnations have their attributes and accolades (I still get chills listening to Rhiannon) there is an often overlooked set of records that I will listen to as long as I live. After Peter Green ‘freaked out’ and left, and before Stevie and Lindsey joined, the band’s voice was highlighted by Christine McVie. Future Games still leans on the Blues influence with a couple nice McVie cuts on it and Bare Trees is pleasant as well. But it’s Penguin, Mystery To Me, and Heroes Are Hard To Find that start to showcase her and lead the band towards the sound that will make them one of the most popular bands of the late 70’s/early 80’s. For some reason her deep, almost mannish voice catches my ear. Always heartfelt and genuine, even comforting. I especially love when she sings her own backup or harmonizes with herself on the overdubs. Here’s to Fleetwood McVie.

Fleetwood Mac – Just Crazy Love
Fleetwood Mac – Heroes Are Hard To Find
Fleetwood Mac – Remember Me

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