Thanks to good friends and/or deals I can't pass up, I've managed to beef up my CD collection substantially this summer.
I'll pass on some of the artists and titles, as recommendations in case you're looking for some listening material that's a little bit off the beaten path:
Yo La Tengo: This band has been around for 20 years. The first 15 or so, I'd never heard of them. Then someone lent me a CD called "And Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out." Very intriguing music. Just as intriguing is a recent acquisition, "I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One," parts of which combine ethereal vocals with layers of distorted guitars and catchy bass lines, something of a cross between the Velvet Underground and My Bloody Valentine. Other tunes are more straightforward, like the acoustic-based "Stockholm Syndrome." (Also worth checking out is Jerry Joseph?Äôs band of that same name.) And also worth checking out is Yo La Tengo's recently released anthology, "Prisoners of Love: A Smattering of Scintillating Senescent Songs."
The Black Keys: You've heard of the White Stripes. The The Black Keys happen to have a similar approach: a duo of guitar and bass, with the guitarists often firing up hyperamplified riffs to compensate for the lack of other instruments. (Only the The Black Keys' drummer is a guy, instead of someone's sister.) The concept works well on what I've heard of the The Black Keys' first and third albums, "The Big Come Up" and "Rubber Factory."
The Groundhogs: OK, I'll admit I always end up going back three or four decades when it comes to this stuff. Members of the Groundhogs were among the British boys who discovered the blues in the mid-'60s and ran with it. (Some of their brethren were Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack, Climax Blues Band and any number of spinoffs from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, including the original Fleetwood Mac.) Anyway, lead Groundhog Tony (T.S.) McPhee steered the band somewhat away from the 12-bar format in the early '70s, with some U.K. top-10 albums as a result. A nice imported package puts together the Groundhogs' first four albums, from 1968-71: "Scratching the Surface," "Blues Obituary," "Thank Christ for the Bomb" and "Split." The third one, as you might expect from its title, stoked some controversy, but its message is as pertinent today as ever.
Speaking of today, T.S. still tours with a 21st-century version of the Groundhogs. Long live blues-rock!
I'll pass on some of the artists and titles, as recommendations in case you're looking for some listening material that's a little bit off the beaten path:
Yo La Tengo: This band has been around for 20 years. The first 15 or so, I'd never heard of them. Then someone lent me a CD called "And Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out." Very intriguing music. Just as intriguing is a recent acquisition, "I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One," parts of which combine ethereal vocals with layers of distorted guitars and catchy bass lines, something of a cross between the Velvet Underground and My Bloody Valentine. Other tunes are more straightforward, like the acoustic-based "Stockholm Syndrome." (Also worth checking out is Jerry Joseph?Äôs band of that same name.) And also worth checking out is Yo La Tengo's recently released anthology, "Prisoners of Love: A Smattering of Scintillating Senescent Songs."
The Black Keys: You've heard of the White Stripes. The The Black Keys happen to have a similar approach: a duo of guitar and bass, with the guitarists often firing up hyperamplified riffs to compensate for the lack of other instruments. (Only the The Black Keys' drummer is a guy, instead of someone's sister.) The concept works well on what I've heard of the The Black Keys' first and third albums, "The Big Come Up" and "Rubber Factory."
The Groundhogs: OK, I'll admit I always end up going back three or four decades when it comes to this stuff. Members of the Groundhogs were among the British boys who discovered the blues in the mid-'60s and ran with it. (Some of their brethren were Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack, Climax Blues Band and any number of spinoffs from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, including the original Fleetwood Mac.) Anyway, lead Groundhog Tony (T.S.) McPhee steered the band somewhat away from the 12-bar format in the early '70s, with some U.K. top-10 albums as a result. A nice imported package puts together the Groundhogs' first four albums, from 1968-71: "Scratching the Surface," "Blues Obituary," "Thank Christ for the Bomb" and "Split." The third one, as you might expect from its title, stoked some controversy, but its message is as pertinent today as ever.
Speaking of today, T.S. still tours with a 21st-century version of the Groundhogs. Long live blues-rock!
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