Never underestimate the power of a band of friends. The Alternates, a group of six good friends, formed in Los Angeles and have been playing music together for over seven years. You can actually hear the friendship in their guitar-driven melodies and effortless harmonies. The band meshes like a comfortable couch and a good book. We catch the band a few days before the digital release of their first EP Spiders and Webs, a solid debut that ranges from folk/Americana to hard-hitting rock. Let’s dive into The Alternates this Saturday afternoon.
“The Modern Way”
This five-minute biting attack at of the world’s overconsumption and destruction of the environment is carried by strong harmonies, skillful drumming, well-placed electric guitar and a neat acoustic chord progression. I specifically enjoy the Modern Way harmonic lyrical cut-ins that provide the listener with a chance to catch their breath. The guitar solo at the four-minute mark provides the song with a refreshing Americana input.
“Spiders and Webs”
“Spiders and Webs” is the title track of The Alternates EP. It features a sharp, head-bopping moving rhythm that tinkers with elements of raw early hard rock while grasping on to slight Indie sentiments. But the hard guitar certainly prevails and it takes the form of an expedited, but enjoyable rock burst.
Spiders and Webs will be released online on June 14 and currently the band is offering free downloads of songs “The Modern Way” and “Slow and Steady” on their website. You can also follow the band on twitter and facebook by following these links. If you live in the California area, The Alternates may be coming to a venue near you. Check out the dates below.
May 18th- House of Blues- Sunset Strip
June 16th- Queen Bee’s- San Diego
June 17th- TRiP- Santa Monica
June 18th- Good Hurt- West Los Angeles
June 21st- Blue Cafe- Long Beach, CA
June 22nd- Frog and Peach- San Luis Obispo
June 23rd- Grant And Green- San Francisco, CA
June 25th- Brainwash Cafe- San Francisco
June 28th- Skylark Cafe & Club- Seattle, Washington
So as I am writing this it is still currently Les Paul’s birthday. Funny how these thing’s work out, right? I know I’ve been away for a while, so take your anger out on Matt. It is time to continue this list and there is clearly no better time than the present. There is a great deal of fascinating stuff about Les Paul and I’m not talking about that nifty guitar thing Google had up…even though that was awesome.
Les Paul was born Lester William Polsfuss and played jazz as well as country guitar. Rock and roll exists in large part because of Paul’s part in pioneering the electric guitar. If you want to talk about someone being influential, here’s your guy. If it wasn’t for his work, many genres of music would never have evolved.
In 1940, “The Log” was built in the Epiphone guitar factory. This was no mere cylindrical slab of wood, but one of the first solid-body electric guitars. There was a great deal of drama when the Gibson company changed the design of the guitar without Paul’s knowledge in response to declining sales. Les wasn’t so happy, but went on after an unpleasant divorce to put his name on the guitar, followed by “SG.” This designation stands for “solid body,” and gained immense popularity after Eric Clapton began playing the model, as well as the ES-335.
In addition to the immensely important innovation, Les Paul also delved into multi-track recordings. With a push from Bing Crosby, Les Paul went for it, creating his own studio, utilizing acetate discs instead of magnetic tape.
So, why does Les wind up at #20? Because…he helped make all these things possible…not to mention he was a pretty good guitarist.
Busy day for Music News. There are numerous items to discuss. But before I get to any of them, I want to wish a very happy birthday to Les Paul, one of the foremost innovators of rock guitar. To celebrate his birthday, Google’s homepage doodle is a strummable guitar with a recording feature. Yes, I’m not kidding. It is perhaps the coolest doodle Google has ever had. Lets move on to the big news of the day.
Paul McCartney is coming to Yankee Stadium. You can read all about it here. (Yes I just plugged myself and apparently have no shame). McCartney has already rocked Queens twice, once with the Beatles in 1965 at the New York Mets’ old home Shea Stadium and then again with three shows at the Mets’ new home Citi Field in 2009, but he has never graced the Bronx with his talents. Tickets for the one-night July 15 concert will go on sale at 11 a.m. on Monday, June 13 and will most likely sell out in five minutes. Yes, that is my guess. So if you want tickets, it may be a good idea to start refreshing the Livenation.com page (where they are on sale) a good five minutes in advance in hope that you can be one of the first on the server. You can also call Ticketmaster at 800-745-3000.
Ticket prices will range from $34-$280. $34! Those tickets probably allow you to sit on a roof across from Yankee Stadium with hopes of catching some audio from the show. Just kidding. It is still a very low price to see an absolute legend. I went to one of McCartney’s Citi Field concerts and it was epic. I urge you to get tickets if you have never seen him live.
The concert will kick off his 2011 “On The Run” tour. No other dates have been released. There has also been no word from McCartney if he will extend his stay in the Bronx for a few more nights (like he did with his concert at Citi Field in 2009), but the Yankees are on the road from July 11-21. I am going to predict a few more Yankee Stadium shows before he departs on his tour.
You read that right. Joe Perry, Aerosmith guitarist, wrote on his twitter account yesterday that, “Whole band has plans to go into the studio with Jack Douglas second week of July to work on new Aero CD.” I am sure Steven Tyler is thrilled. This band argues more than a couple in an unsuccessful marriage. Perry has been angry at Tyler more times than the Mets have disappointed me. Okay, I’ll stop with these horrendous metaphors.
Aerosmith has not released an album since Just Push Play in 2001. They have toured, though, a lot, up until Tyler’s stage accident in 2009 where he broke his shoulder and then entered rehab and then after patching up problems with Aersomith apparently blindsided the band in 2010 when he announced his plans to become a judge on Fox’s American Idol.
Aerosmith is not stupid. Tyler has propelled his level of fame to new heights with his American Idol appearance. Aerosmith has also seen an increase in record sales. It is a good time to release an album, while the Aerosmith stock is still high.
NME released its “50 Best New Bands of 2011” recently and after sifting through its contents I found a band that I rather like.
Dry The River, of East London, have propelled onto the emerging progressive folk scene and their Mumford and Sons style may help them jump into popularity.
Check out “New Ceremony” which melds together a deep folk guitar, delicate harmonies, oddly dark instrumentation and Pete Liddle’s theatrical voice. The chorus has serious pop sentiments and the song is rather advanced.
Name: Adrian Pride was a pseudonym for Bernie Schwartz (not to be confused with actor Tony Curtis who was born Bernard Schwartz) that was created by producer (at the time) Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers. Apparently, people do not like the name Bernie Schwartz.
History:
Like I said above, Adrian Pride was the false name of Bernie Schwartz, a West Coast musician with Psychedelic Pop aspirations. And while Adrian Pride does sound like an awesome, but corny superhero, Schwartz only recorded under the name once. Yes, once. He used Pride for his dreamy meditation “Her Name is Melody,” an apt title for a song that attempts to lure listeners into its constant rhythm, eastern guitar and melodic vocals. This example of psychedelic pop is from 1966 and was produced by The Everly Brothers. Well all you have to do is dream, dream, dream. Right? I couldn’t help it.
Unfortunately, “Her Name is Melody” (and its B-side “I Go To Sleep” – Kinks cover) did not chart and fell off into the realm of psychedelic nuggets of the late 60s. It was picked up by a compilation CD and you can still hear it today if you search for rare psychedelic gems.
After his Adrian Pride phase, Schwartz became one of the vocalists for late 60s band Comfortable Chair, yet another obscure West Coast psychedelic sunshine band. And while The Everly Brothers originally produced Schwartz’s music, Jim Morrison of the Doors found Comfortable Chair and Doors’ drummer John Densmore and Doors’ guitarist Robbie Kreiger happened to produce Comfortable Chair’s first album in 1969. The album went nowhere and the band found no success outside of the sinking late 60’s psychedelic scene.
Adrian Pride, Bernie Schwartz, Comfortable Chair. Schwartz represents a large group of unheard 60’s musicians who were lost in the crowded sea of popular musicians. But you can still hear his music if you search. Here is “Her Name is Melody.”
Thank you to everyone who participated in last Friday’s first edition of Music Trivia. We received a good amount of answers. Unfortunately, only one participant posted a comment with his answers. So before I get to the answers, I can officially crown Anthony Zampardi winner of the first edition of Music Trivia. Anthony got one answer correct. Did you do better than Anthony and feel disrespected because you are not being recognized? Well, remember, during each Music Trivia you answer the questions in the poll format and then post your answers (a,b,c,d,a – for example) in a comment with your name. You can discuss the questions in the comment section as well. Comments can be accessed by pressing the quote button with the number next to the post’s title. On to the answers!
1.) “Hey Jude” is arguably the Beatles‘ best and most emotional song. When Paul McCartney first played the track for bandmate John Lennon, Paul stopped after a line and told John he was meaning to change the particular lyric. Lennon said that he wouldn’t and it was the best line in the song. What is that line? Answer – C.) “The movement you need is on your shoulder”
Yes, the answer choice that garnered the least attention is the correct answer. I admit, this was a difficult first question. It is a small piece of Beatles’ trivia. This line gathered 10 percent of the vote. The answer choice that gained the most clicks at 40 percent was “For well you know that it’s a fool who plays it cool.” I guess we know what line Music Court readers think is dumb!
In all of their Mugwumps splendor
2.) The Mamas & The Papas is still considered one of the best folk/vocal groups ever. Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty were truly the vocal superstars of the band. Before they joined The Mamas & The Papas they were both members of an unsuccesful New York band called The Mugwumps in the mid-60′s. The other two members of that band went on to form a famous American band after the break-up. What band did they form?
Most fared better on this question. The Lovin’ Spoonful gained 40 percent of the votes. Even if you did not know the answer to the question, process of elimination could have helped formulate an educated guess. The Byrds were formed in California in 1964, The Turtles in California in 1965, and Jefferson Airplane in San Francisco in 1965. John B. Sebastian and Zal Yanovksky were both based in Greenwich Village at the time of the Mugwump’s formation. The Mugwumps were not successful, but this was in partly because they were such a short-lived group. If they stuck it out, perhaps they would have even usurped the future popularity of the Lovin’ Spoonful and The Mamas and The Papas. Who knows.
3.) Soul Asylum released “Runaway Train,” a song about runaways, with a corresponding video that featured pictures and names of missing children. Because of the song’s popularity many children featured in the video were actually returned to their homes. The song was pretty good too. It took home the Grammy for Best Rock Song in what year?
Answer: A.) 1994
Who expected a 90’s music question? I told you, no genre/time period discrimination. I actually thought of this question while at the gym. The music video for the song started playing on VH1 and I started talking to a trainer about when the song was released. I swore it was mid-late 90s, but he said it was when he was a teenager (early 90s). I looked it up and he was right. The song was released in 1993 (answer choice D and the choice that received 33.3 percent of the vote – tied with 1991). But if you look carefully the question is what year did the song receive the Grammy for Best Rock Song and that was 1994. Congrats to the 22.2 percent of you that got this trick question correct.
4.) In Canned Heat‘s “On The Road Again” what instrument helps create the buzzing sound that follows the song like a swarm of bees.
Answer: C.) Tambura
For those not fluent in the rich tradition of Indian instrumentation, I cannot blame you for getting this wrong. A tambura is a sitar-like instrument with a long neck. It distinguishes itself from a sitar because it has no frets. Its open strings are plucked in a regular pattern in order to create a resonating sound. You can use the instrument for drone music and this is exactly what Canned Heat does with “On The Road Again.” Alan Wilson added the tambura to give the song a hypnotic feel. He definitely accomplished his goal.
5.) The Dirty Mac was a one-time supergroup formed exclusively for the TV Special “The Rolling Stones Rock n’ Roll Circus” in 1968. The band featured John Lennon on rhythm guitar and vocals, Keith Richards on bass guitar, Mitch Mitchell (drummer for the Jimi Hendrix Experience) on drums and what famous lead guitarist?
Answer: B.) Eric Clapton
I am often asked who my favorite supergroup is. Okay, maybe it is not a constant question but I have been asked it more than once. Without fail, despite my allegiance to King Crimson, I target the one-time performers The Dirty Mac as my favorite supergroup. Yes, their only performance was at The Rolling Stones Rock n’ Roll Circus, but the group consisted of John Lennon, Mitch Mitchell, Keith Richards and Eric Clapton (the answer to the question). The band didn’t just ooze talent, it flat-out blew it out like an active volcano. Their performance of “Yer Blues” is mind-altering. 57.14 percent of you got this one correct, so great job. Until next time, here is”Yer Blues” by The Dirty Mac.
The Music Court 