Eddie Vedder has finally released a studio version of “Room at the Top,” the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ song he’s been covering live for years.
It appears on the soundtrack to Apple TV+’s upcoming Bad Monkey, starring Vince Vaughn, a show about a former police detective in Florida. In fact, the series’ entire soundtrack consists of Petty covers — Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit cover “You’re Gonna Get It,” Marcus King takes on “The Waiting” and Larkin Poe handled “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” just to name a few.
You can hear Vedder’s new recording below.
Eddie Vedder’s Love of Tom Petty
Vedder has long been a fan of Petty and his work, covering several of his songs in concert and occasionally teaming up with members of the Heartbreakers. In 2022, he performed “Room at the Top” and “The Waiting” with guitarist Mike Campbell at the Ohana Music Festival.
“Tomorrow will be five years since we all lost this guy [Petty] that was a part of our lives,” he told the crowd then (via Rolling Stone). “I think about him all the time, as we all do. I keep reminding myself how grateful we can be because we still have his voice in our heads, and the songs are in us. We can play them loud, and we can still hear him.”
Though often off-the-beaten path, obscure, or to some, downright weird, the music that’s shaped GWAR guitarist Tommy Meehan, aka Grodius Maximus’s journey means a lot. Just ask him: “I wanted to put some care and thought into this,” he says. “Because these albums were life-changing to me.” Of course, that’s the aim here, right? To dig in with artists of all shapes, sizes, and creeds to discover where they came from, why they do the things they do, and, you know… figure out what the hell makes ’em tick.
As for Meehan, who joined the iconic and always shocking hard rock and heavy metal band GWAR at the top of 2024 after the departure of Brent Purgason, he digs deep when it comes to his proverbial musical clock. When Meehan isn’t melting audiences’ faces with GWAR, he’s got a myriad of side projects, such as Cancer Christ, and a record label to run, Sweatband Records. His aim with the former is to harvest his pulsating creativity and unleash it unto the unsuspecting masses. Check.
As for the latter, Sweatband Records, Meehan’s love for vinyl and all things physical media, and supporting indie acts deemed “too weird” for other labels are just two things constantly being cultivated by the endeavor. Check. Lately, much of Meehan’s time has been taken up by touring the States with GWAR; there’s undoubtedly more to come. But for now, he’s got a pocket of time, and we took advantage of that to beam in with Tommy Meehan to grab the ten albums that changed his life.
Vicuna – Nuclear Rabbit (1996)
Before I had heard of Primus, Mr. Bungle, or any of the other mainstream “weirdo” bands, I had become obsessed with Northern California’s Nuclear Rabbit. I was in middle school, and my sister was living with their bass player, Jean Baudin. The album is a spazzy, aggressive, cartoony freakout of slap bass, jazz chords, and extreme zaniness. Vicuna mystified me. The odd time signatures, strange harmonic arrangements, and unorthodox playing techniques were things I hadn’t previously been exposed to.
Nuclear Rabbit was also my introduction to the DIY punk scene. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, I would see them play at The Phoenix Theater in Petaluma (and other local venues) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Eventually, my high school band, The Brockly Tacos, would go on to open for them, which was a dream come true for me. The record sounds, to me, like a bunch of bunnies and fu*ked up creatures getting flung from slingshots inside of a bounce house while a bunch of candy and nuclear waste rains down from the ceiling.
Street Mixxx – DJ Embryonic Petit Sac (2014)
My introduction to DJ Embryonic Petit Sac occurred back in 2005 when the amphibious entity himself handed me a burnt 3″ CD-R with little frog stickers all over it. He was attending a Brockly Tacos show and must have felt a kinship with what we were doing because he decided to give me his album. The CD, entitled Street Mixxx, was initially a limited edition one of six pressing… he’s gone on to press more over the years, but if you ever find one, know that they are extremely rare. I had never heard anything like it before—and I still haven’t, really. I was perplexed and enthralled. This is one of those albums that made me say to myself, “I didn’t know you could do that.”
The album is a mash-up of overdriven found audio, snippets from video games and movies, and curated dialogue from his college theater troupe performances. It is all played through first-generation Kaoss Pads and a DJ mixer. Seemingly, there is no structure on Street Mixxx. It’s a collage of madness stitched together in what feels like a nonsensical fashion. Complete disregard for any preconceived “laws of music” or production technique, etc. It was my first time experiencing somebody saying, “Fu*k you!” to music and I loved it.
This record subverted my expectations of what music and sound could be. I don’t think you can even listen to this anywhere currently, unless you have a physical copy. I gotta talk to Sac about doing a re-re-release of this on Sweatband Records.
Swidden – Blackbird Raum (2008)
I saw this band play at a little DIY venue called Pehrspace in Los Angeles around 2009, I think. It was the first time I ever saw a mosh pit go down without the use of amplifiers, drums, or a PA system. This was my first real introduction to folk punk, and the band inspired me to pick up a banjo and start my band, The Manx.
Blackbird Raum shreds out anti-police, anti-government, pro-environmentalist anthems of hope and despair with banjo, accordion, mandolin, washtub bass, and washboards. Each member adds their own distinct vocal stylings, which keeps things feeling fresh from track to track. The songs are incredibly well crafted as sing-alongs, but there are also a lot of prog aspects to the arrangements. They’ll often execute odd time signatures, they’re incredibly dynamic, and there is a crusty rawness that you can only really find within folk punk. This band is one of my favorites in the genre.
Spot The Psycho – Corn Bugs (1999)
I discovered Buckethead in my early teens and immediately dove headfirst into anything and everything I could pick up at Amoeba, Tower Records, or Rasputin Music. Naturally, I was also obsessed with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, so when I found out that Buckethead and Bill Moseley had started a project together, I was overcome with joy and excitement.
I ordered Spot The Pyscho from choptopsbbq.com in 2003, and when I received the burned CD-R and an autographed Chop Top print, I became obsessed with the quirky riffs, the wild monologues, and the low-fi nature of the recording. Buckethead’s playing on this album is raw and is usually restricted to one-takes with what sounds like little to no overdubs.
I found this exciting. It made me feel like I could do something similar. It sounded, to me, like an album that I could make with cheap equipment in my own bedroom. It was encouraging and inspiring to listen to it in a way I hadn’t previously experienced. I had recently made a new friend named Jesse Maxwell at my high school, and we would listen to this album repeatedly on my mom’s Tercel. We became inspired to start our own two-piece band, so we formed The Brockly Tacos.
Totally Krossed Out – Kriss Kross (1992)
This is the first album I ever heard—the first music I ever heard, really. My parents didn’t listen to music in the house, so I never grew up with The Beatles or Yes or The Rolling Stones or whatever everyone else my age grew up listening to because of their parents.
I was on a class trip to a museum in elementary school, and my pal Alex Hermes had a WalkmanTM and the Totally Krossed Out cassette tape with him. We put our heads together to share his headphones as we bounced up and down in our bus seat to the tune of “Jump Jump.” It was an electric feeling that I hadn’t experienced previously.
It was also really cool knowing that the Kriss Kross dudes were both really young because I was also just a young boy. I think they were 11 and 12 or something when they recorded this album. I was seven or eight years old, I think. I wanted to braid my hair so badly.
Violence Has Arrived – GWAR (2001)
When I first popped this album in, I knew the Bohabs were in for a different ride altogether. Compared to anything else that GWAR had put out previously, this album felt deadly serious… for the most part. From the ominous and tense opening of “Hell Intro” to the blistering gallop and beatdown of “Battle Lust,” tracks like the eternally epic “Immortal Corruptor” and the disgusting and pummeling “Lick Sore” had me enthralled and entranced.
I would skate around my hometown of Novato, California, just blasting these songs on a WalkmanTM during my teen years. I learned how to play the entire album on guitar, and anytime I would jam with kids in hopes of starting a band, I’d ask if they were into GWAR because they had become such a huge inspiration to me. The first time I saw GWAR was in 2002 at The Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, CA. They were touring this album, and the show completely blew my mind. I remember being overcome with emotion. The band delivered everything I could’ve ever asked for: ripping metal, gore, and dark humor. That night, I became a lifelong fan.
I felt a kinship and a serious connection with what they were doing artistically and politically. The way they shoved the darkest and most depraved parts of society and humankind back into its own fu*ked up face really resonated with me. The whole thing just seemed very next level and ahead of it’s time to me.
GWAR has always gone above and beyond as a band and as an art collective and I subscribe to that way of working as well. If something is worth doing, go all the way. And if it’s gonna upset people, double down and go even fucking harder with it because confronting your bullshit is essential to growth. As a society, as a people, we need to face harsh truths. I firmly believe that GWAR is good for humanity on a level that not a lot of people are able to fully grasp or appreciate. Or maybe it’s just silly, decadent rock and roll for dipshits; I don’t know. But that’s the beauty of GWAR.
Phase 2 – Daikaiju (2010)
This band re-ignited my interest in the guitar after not playing for almost five years or so. I became obsessed with surf music. The surfy tones and the noodley, reverbed-out guitar passages were really exciting to me. I found myself writing a lot of my own surf music around this time. I was composing music for Cartoon Network at the time on a show called Uncle Grandpa. It was a fun, upbeat, surreal, and tripped-out show about a dude who was everyone in the world’s uncle and grandpa at the same time. The surfy jams just seemed to work well with the show.
I was listening to Daikaiju for years before I ever saw them live, and when I finally did, holy shit… this band is insane to witness in person. They somehow coax the audience into crowd-surfing the drummer—along with most of his drum kit—without ever skipping a beat in the song. I’ve seen shows where their guitar player [Santanu Mitra] will just suddenly be playing on top of the roof of the venue.
Mid-set, they will sometimes move the whole show from inside to outside without any notice… during the performance… again, without skipping a beat. It’s completely bonkers, and I don’t know how they pull shit like that off—tons of fire and sweat and just pure energy. I’m getting goosebumps right now just thinking about it—a must-see live band.
Of Natural History – Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (2004)
I bought this CD at a show in San Francisco on Halloween 2005. I dove in fully, studying the lyrics and liner notes, the intricate structures, rhythms, timbres, and themes, and really trying to decode everything. There’s a poetry with this band that’s unlike anything I’ve ever really experienced. A charisma and a gentle but serious message that they deliver in a most violent and elegant manner. They play homemade musical instruments while putting on a demented stage show that transports the audience onto another timeline and into another universe altogether.
Thematically, musically, or otherwise, the album simultaneously challenges and embraces tradition. It warns of a hellish future for mankind as humans continue to industrialize and drain the Earth of its resources. References to Ted Kaczynski [the Unabomber] and other anti-humanist themes weave in and out of the record while sonically delivering a strange dual citizenship of grim desolation and familial warmth. You can hear and feel the metal, wood, meat, and souls of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum in this record.
The taste of their collective spirit can be felt with your own heart while listening and absorbing their message. Label things all you want. You can call this album prog, metal, folk, theater, jazz, and a million other things, but it’s none and all those things at once. Of Natural History disregards convention in all the best ways, and I think it’s a true masterpiece.
Planet of the Apes Orginal Soundtrack – Jerry Goldsmith (1968)
Another obsession of mine. The original series of Planet of the Apes, meaning the first five movies, absolutely rip. You can’t really go wrong with apocalyptic sci-fi in general, and this series really nailed it by setting an amazing tone on the original film. Musically, Jerry Goldsmith keeps the listener/viewer on their toes with wild shifts in dynamics, totally unorthodox melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre. It sounds like he’s composing music with weird alien bones and drums made of skin and hair, bizarre instruments made of gut strings, and delay effects.
Lots of brass, tuned percussion, weird ape vocalizations… I don’t know what Jerry Goldsmith was using to make all these wild sounds back in 1968. I need to look it up. One of my favorite aspects is that the musical themes and motifs hardly ever repeat. Or when they do, some kind of shift or change will take place to keep things feeling new and exciting. The whole thing just feels like alien music from another dimension to me. Primitive alien music. Leonard Rosenman’s score to Beneath the Planet of the Apes is great, too.
Neon Corpse Parade: Vol. 1 by Various Artists (2020)
Just before we formed Cancer Christ, St. Anthony and I decided to put together a compilation record for my label, Sweatband Records, to showcase a bunch of the rad music being created within our scene. Los Angeles in the late 2010’s2010s was giving birth to a ton of sick shit, and the community of musicians who lived here was really banding together in a way that I hadn’t seen before. Anthony and I had been friends for a few years already at this point. We met at a Manx show. He would regularly cruise out and photograph us and a ton of other bands in and around the Los Angeles area.
He quickly became one of my favorite photographers and one of my favorite people. For the compilation record, we got a ton of weird and twisted tracks from bands like Melted Bodies, Prissy Whip, The Manx, and Major Entertainer. We even snuck a demo version of “The Blood of Jesus” onto the record, our first official Cancer Christ release.
Since then, we’ve been pouring creative energy and sweat equity into Cancer Christ, and we’ve accomplished a ton of cool shit together. We’ve travelled, and made records, and art and a ton of friends along the way. We immediately sold out of the 12″ vinyl version of the record. If you can find one out there, you should definitely pick it up. It’s a super eclectic mix of really cool shit with narration by the great DJ Embryonic Petit Sac.
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From Ashes To New have released a lyric video for “Monster In Me” featuring rapper Yelawolf, one of the six bonus tracks featured on the deluxe version of their #1-charting 2023 album, Blackout. The album is available across digital platforms here.
Following several sold-out shows supporting Blackout earlier this year, From Ashes To New will continue to bring their blend of hard rock, hip-hop, electronic, and alternative music to audiences across the US this fall. The band will join Nothing More and Set It off along with Post Profit from September 3 to 24 before breaking off on a co-bill with Set It Off from September 21 to November 2 with special guests New Years Day and If Not For Me.
Fans Of The Dark announce the release of their new studio album, Video, out October 11 via Frontiers Music Srl. The band has also dropped the first single and accompanying video for the track “Let’s Go Rent A Video”, available today.
Watch the video for “Let’s Go Rent A Video” below, and pre-order the new album here.
Drummer Freddie Allen explains the concept of the album and of the first single: “The album Video and in particular the song ‘Let’s Go Rent A Video’ is about growing up in the 80’s and 90’s and how great it was to have access to a local video store. The whole idea about going there as a group or alone and deciding on what you were going to watch. It was something you could spend a whole night on, a pastime, something to occupy your thoughts for quite a while. These days we are struggling with our attention spans for just a few seconds. The video era was the opposite of that, everything took time”.
“In a way, listening to the album as a whole is also about that. It takes you on a journey through a lost era, but it is an era which you can rediscover and relive through great music and films. This album is our way of saluting that great era. The sound is a bit pinker and fluffier than the last two albums, which we hope might be to the liking of all you AOR lovers out there. This one’s for you”, continues Freddie.
Video is the third chapter of Swedish act Fans Of The Dark, an exciting new band formed in 2020 by Freddie Allen, drummer and main songwriter, and lead vocalist Alex Falk, when they reconnected a few years after high school, with a vision to create a band which would mix the melodies and the approach of classic and melodic rock.
Their debut album Fans of the Dark, released in 2021, attracted the attention of Frontiers Records and led to the band signing a multi-album deal. Their second album Suburbia was released in 2022, and it was followed by the band’s first live show at Frontiers Rock Fest in Stockholm the same year. By then, they were permanently joined by guitarist Oscar Bromvall and bass player Rickard Gramfors.
After releasing an EP of four cover songs, the band went into writing mode once more, and the result is Video, the band’s third album, one of the most exciting things you’ll hear emerging from the fruitful melodic rock in Sweden, showcasing a tight, inventive musical approach with outstanding vocals.
Video tracklisting:
“Meet Me On The Corner” “Let’s Go Rent A Video” “The Neon Phantom” “Christine” “The Wall” “Find Your Love” “In The Bay Of Blood” “Tomorrow Is Another Day” “The Dagger Of Tunis” “Savage Streets”
“Let’s Go Rent A Video” video:
Lineup:
Alex Falk – Vocals Oscar Bromvall – Guitar Rickard Gramfors – Bass Freddie Allen – Drums
Vernon Reid recently visited Guitar World HQ in NYC to play and discuss some of his favorite Living Colour riffs, including “Cult Of Personality”, “Behind The Sun”, and more. Watch below:
In a previous video from Guitar World, Reid shows some of his favourite riffs that have inspired him:
Living Colour will support Extreme on a month-long September run of their global “Thicker Than Blood Tour.”
For tickets and additional information, please visit extreme-band.com.
Tour dates:
September 4 – The Pub Station – Billings, MT 5 – The Newberry – Great Falls, MT 8 – Knitting Factory – Spokane, WA 10 – Commodore Ballroom – Vancouver, BC 12 – River Cree Casino & Resort – Enoch, AB 13 – Grey Eagle Resort and Casino – Calgary, AB 15 – TCU Place – Saskatoon, SK 16 – Casino Regina – Regina, SK 18 – Club Regent Casino – Winnipeg, MB 20 – Thunder Bay Community Auditorium – Thunder Bay, ON 21 – EPIC Event Center – Green Bay, WI 24 – Taft Theatre – Cincinnati, OH 25 – Riviera Theatre – N. Tonawanda, NY 27 – Casino Rama – Orillia, ON 28 – MTELUS – Montréal, QC
Slayer are set to reunite for for three US dates this year – Chicago’s Riot Fest (September 22nd), Louisville’s Louder Than Life (September 27th), and Sacramento’s Aftershock (October 10th).
In a new interview with Audio Ink Radio’s Anne Erickson, Kerry King talks about his new band, the Slayer reunion shows, touring with Mastodon and more. Listen below.
On the Slayer reunion, Kerry says, “Yeah, you know, at the end of the day, it wasn’t bad blood. Tom (Araya) was just done. And, when Tom told me he was done, I went, ‘Okay, well, I’m not going to try to talk you into it,’ because if you’re if you’re trying to talk somebody into it, their hearts are not in it. So, it was over for me, and, of course, a month after we were done, offers came in, because people think you’re done. So what we retired from was touring. We never said we were done playing. We said it was our final tour, and I don’t think three shows constitute a tour, so if you want to get technical, I think we’re in the ballpark of being truthful.”
Kerry King’s debut solo album, From Hell I Rise, is out now via Reigning Phoenix Music. Stream / purchase the album here.
From Hell I Rise tracklisting:
“Diablo” “Where I Reign” “Residue” “Idle Hands” “Trophies Of The Tyrant” “Crucifixation” “Tension” “Everything I Hate About You” “Toxic” “Two Fists” “Rage” “Shrapnel” “From Hell I Rise”
Former Iron Maiden vocalist and frontman, Paul Di’Anno, announces the release of a new album, The Book Of The Beast, via Conquest Music on September 27.
The vinyl double album (available in Blood Red, Virgin White and Cold Steel coloured vinyl) and 2-disc CD/DVD include five previously unreleased tracks, along with a carefully curated collection of songs that distills many of the best moments from Di’Anno’s fascinating and formidable career. The CD/DVD also includes rare live, promotional, and acoustic video footage.
Deep cuts from albums going back to Paul’s Battlezone, Killers and solo days have been painstakingly remastered to give them a more up to date and polished production plus some of Paul’s rare acoustic, rehearsal and demo recordings have been added as a special bonus.
Perhaps the most interesting addition to this album is the unexpected reworking of two Iron Maiden classics, but with a dark twist. Both “Remember Tomorrow” and “Wrathchild” have been treated to a facelift with Paul duetting alongside Tony Martin (Black Sabbath), ZP Theart (Dragonforce) and Lidya Balaban (Crowley).
“I suppose it might sound like an unusual combination, but Lidya has got a brilliant voice,” Paul enthuses. “I’ve been trying to get it together to see Crowley, but it hasn’t happened yet.”
“I’d be very interested in working on something special with Tony and ZP in the future,” Paul adds.
The vinyl albums feature Paul duetting with Lydia Balaban while the The ZP Theart & Tony Martin duets are on CD/DVD and also digital.
With an exhaustive CV that includes Battlezone, Killers, Di’Anno (the band), Praying Mantis, The Almighty Inbredz, Warhorse and the metal supergroup Gogmagog, Paul Di’Anno is one of the most colourful and controversial characters in hard rock and heavy metal. But of course, Paul is best known for having been a member of Iron Maiden from 1978 to 1981, appearing on their two iconic albums Iron Maiden and Killers, his voice bringing the band far more of a raw, punky edge than was present on subsequent records.
For that reason, Maiden’s first two albums still inspire strong reactions. Though the band became bigger than ever after his exit, there are fans that stopped liking them when Paul exited the picture. In later years, Di’Anno met members of Metallica, Pantera and Sepultura who all respectfully told him how much those first two LPs had influenced them.
“That’s always bloody brilliant to hear,” he enthuses. “It’s nice to know that you are worth something in the grand scheme of things.
Side A “The Beast Arises” “Madman In The Attic” “The Living Dead” “Die By The Gun”
Side B “Children Of The Revolution” “Feel My Pain” “Chemical Imbalance” “Nomad”
Side C “The Forgotten Ones” “Children Of Madness” “Remember Tomorrow” (Guest Vocal Lidya Balaban) “Wrathchild” (Guest Vocal Lidya Balaban)
Side D “Black Metal” (Cover of the Venom classic) “Dream Keeper” (Euro Radio Acoustic Version) “The Serpent & The Shrew” (Unreleased recording) “Three Words” (1996 Pre-Tour Rehearsal Recording) “The Beast Is Back” (2003 Home Demo)
CD/DVD tracklisting:
Disc One (Audio CD) “The Beast Arises” “Madman In The Attic” “The Living Dead” “Die By The Gun” “Children Of The Revolution” “Feel My Pain” “Chemical Imbalance” “Nomad” “The Forgotten Ones” “Children Of Madness” “Remember Tomorrow” (Featuring Tony Martin) “Wrathchild” (Featuring Z P Theart) “Black Metal” (Cover of the Venom classic) “Dream Keeper” (Euro Radio Acoustic Version) “The Serpent & The Shrew” (Unreleased recording) “Three Words” (1996 Pre-Tour Rehearsal Recording) “The Beast Is Back” (2003 Home Demo)
Disc Two (Bonus DVD) PAL Total Duration: 49:01 “Murders In The Rue Morgue” (Live) “The Beast Arises” (Live) “Protector” (Live) “Sanctuary” (Live) “Three Words” (Live) “Children Of The Revolution” (Promo Video) “Die By The Gun” (Promo Video) “Wrathchild” (Promo Video) “Wrathchild” (Acoustic) “Remember Tomorrow” (Acoustic) “Dream Keeper” (Acoustic) “Strange World” (Acoustic)
Paul Di’Anno’s Warhorse recently released their new self-titled album, available worldwide via BraveWords Records. You can stream or order Paul Di’Anno’s Warhorse here.
The next video single from the album will be a cover of Depeche Mode’s “Precious”. Watch a sneak peek below:
Paul Di’Anno speaking about his new album, “Paul Di’Anno’s Warhorse is my first studio project after many years of being away from the studio and not performing. I remember when we announced that we were recording an album in Croatia with completely unknown musicians, many were shocked and no one knew in which direction we would go. Warhorse exudes pure energy and reflects everything I went through while recording the album.”
Hrvoje Madiraca adds, “This record is a product of hard work combined with the voice of the man, the myth and the legend of our dear Wrathchild! Old school metal you want. That is what you’ll get!”
Ante Pupacic, known as Pupi continues, “When it comes to music, I’ve done all sorts of things, but I’m particularly proud of this album. Two years of work, composing, arranging, recording, editing, deleting, and so on. We went through all kinds of emotions, from euphoria to agony. Each song was carefully polished to achieve its current form. On the album, everyone added their touch, both Hrvoje and I, in terms of lyrics, music, and production, all ennobled by the powerful vocals of our legend, Paul Di’Anno.”
Tracklisting:
“Warhorse” “Get Get Ready” “Go” “Stop The War” “The Doubt Within” “Here Comes The Night” “Tequila” “Forever Bound” “Precious” “Going Home”
“Here Comes The Night” video:
“Precious”:
Warhorse are:
Paul Di´Anno – Vocals Hrvoje Madiraca – Guitars Ante Pupačić Pupi – Guitars
Guest Musicians:
Becky Baldwin (Bass Guitar on songs: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9) Petar Šantić (Drums on songs: 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10), (Bass guitar on song 10) Joe Lazarus (Drums on song 1) Andro Banovac (Backing Vocals on songs: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) Danijel Stojan (Drums on song 5) Nikolina Belan (Backing Vocals on song 9)
We can only hope that when we reach our ninth decade on planet Earth we’re having as much fun as former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman sounds like he’s having on this laid-back collection of gentle boogies and carefree shuffles.
His voice was never that strong in the traditional sense (anyone remember Je Suis Un Rock Star? You might choose not to), but at 87 Wyman’s super-weathered vocal expression of these 10 tunes adds to the rocking-chair vibe.
Bill Wyman – Drive My Car (Official Lyric Video) – YouTube
He tackles covers such as Taj Mahal’s Light Rain and Bob Dylan’s Thunder On The Mountain in a manner that he admits in the sleeve notes owes an unashamed debt to JJ Cale.
The title track (no relation to the Beatles track but one of three self-written originals) is typical of the likeable bouncing grooves Wyman’s band create here. ‘Eat a pack of cherries, spit out the pips,’ he suggests. You can’t beat simple pleasures.
Paul Weller’s first solo decade began with him in perplexing obscurity, before taking in the Stanley Road renaissance and ending with him re-loved, in Britain at least. He was typically prolific, hence this three-disc cornucopia of B-sides plus the occasional remix and session track. It appeared in 2003, sailed to #22 and disappeared.
Now, it’s been exhumed apropos nothing beyond a first appearance on digital, so, ironically, the extra-tracks collection has no extra tracks. One disc comprises so-so covers, from The Beatles (Sexy Sadie) to Ben Harper (Waiting On An Angel) via assorted soul classics. As the subsequent Studio 150 would confirm, Weller isn’t really meant for covers.
Foot Of The Mountain (Royal Albert Hall Live Version) – YouTube
The B-sides, though, are a revelation, whether it’s a heroic live assault on Foot Of The Mountain, Portishead’s glorious, dub-tastic Wild Wood remix or the beautiful A Year Late, so wasted as a B-side. And there’s Arrival Time, the swirling TV theme that never was: “We played this live once, in New Orleans at the famous Tipitina’s, the home of funk,” Weller remembers in the sleeve-notes. “And they hated it. Fair enough.”
These seeming cast-offs show Weller free of constraint, revelling in the luxury of being able to sidestep commercial restrictions. Certainly his labels at the time knew what they wanted, and it wasn’t the feast of distortion that is Kosmos, but they understood, too, the value of indulging their asset. Big picture-wise, Go! Discs and Island knew best, but, overwhelmingly, what’s here is a treat. Everyone wins.
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Seventy years after his epochal debut That’s All Right invented, or at least popularised, rock’n’roll, this colossal collection – 111 tracks across five CDs (or debatable highlights on a two-LP edition) – gathers everything Elvis Presley ever recorded in his home town. It’s a rewarding retrospective, not dissimilar in breadth and depth to the kind revered visual artists get at major museums.
It runs from his early, savant, sex-driven emissions, through his responses to freakout levels of fame, on to his final, intimate Graceland grabs for grand emotion. Suspicious minds might ask if it’s anything more than yet another Elvis cash-in, but its scholarly diligence will satisfy those who just can’t help believing. The latter titanic track alluded to there is the major omission, which shows the problem with defining a box set by geography.
Elvis Presley – MEMPHIS: Behind the Box Set – YouTube
But there’s so much of both historic importance and physical energy here that to quibble would be to clutch one’s pearls at the young Elvis’s hip rotations. The Sun singles and RCA LP start the fire, with Baby, Let’s Play House still throbbing like a badass.
By 1969, In The Ghetto emblemises his era of seeking and achieving gravitas, while the Stax 1973 selections showcase an underrated phase, ranging from the effortlessly motoring (Promised Land) to the magnificently maudlin (My Boy). The Homecoming Concert spits out comets like Polk Salad Annie, the Graceland ‘76 trophy cupboard carries you way on down. To try to be iconoclastic about this immortal gold would be twerpish.
Chris Roberts has written about music, films, and art for innumerable outlets. His new book The Velvet Underground is out April 4. He has also published books on Lou Reed, Elton John, the Gothic arts, Talk Talk, Kate Moss, Scarlett Johansson, Abba, Tom Jones and others. Among his interviewees over the years have been David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, Bryan Ferry, Al Green, Tom Waits & Lou Reed. Born in North Wales, he lives in London.
