Genesis - The Lamia: Progressive genius wih a pop flair

Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

The 1970s were one of the most music-aboundant decades of all time, even rivaling current times, where the amount of readily available music is almost overwhelming. Quality is another thing, I guess when it comes to explorations in music, past times will always seem more impressive and prolific -I suppose a prophet is without honor in hiw own... time?

Peter Gabriel's Genesis was one of the most flamboyant, pompous bands in the whole Prog Rock movement, but they were also capable of adding pop sensibilites to their otherwise intrincate songs. The Lamia is a great example of that, as it combines beautifully crafted piano parts, performed by the great Tony Banks, with Gabriel's lyrics that are part of a greater concept, expanded throughout the album; superb drumming by the then-not-so-famous Phil Collins. more than appropriate bass lines, and a great solo to boot right at the end, make The Lamia a standout track in a terrific album. 

So, what are you waiting for? Get yer yayas out and check today's first pill right here, right now, in he embedded track below (If you want the original version, follow this link). Leave us a comment and stay tuned for more supernatural creatures action!

Reverberation #244 - Reverberation Radio

This week's reverberation radio features a tribute to Leon Russell (one of the greatest songwriters/session musicians of all time) and famed jazz musician (and also one of the biggest contributors to the mainstream attention of jazz, blues and bebop songs, performed by some of the biggest names in the 1970s) Mose Allison, who both passed away in the second week of November. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Listen to it here.

1. Leon Russell - Smashed
2. Mose Allison - It Didn’t Turn Out That Way
3. Mose Allison - What’s With You
4. The High Numbers - Young Man Blues
5. The Yardbirds - I’m Not Talking
6. Mose Allison - Baby Please Don’t Go
7. Mose Allison - Your Mind Is On Vacation
8. Georgie Fame - Parchman Farm
9. Mose Allison - Rollin’ Stone
10. Mose Allison - Don’t Forget To Smile
11. Mose Allison - Everybody Crying Mercy

Just to clarify, I don't have any participation in Reverberation Radio. I just love it so much I feel the need to share it with y'all.

Todd Rundgren - You Left Me Sore: The pinnacle of sophisticated pop songwriting

Todd Rundgren's 1970s mammoth of an album Something/Anything (coveralia)

I know I would probably get smacked by Fab-four fans if I said "this is the pinnacle of sophisticated pop songwriting" out loud, but I gotta say, Rundgren has nothing to be envious of. To showcase his exhilarating ability to write and perform infectious pop songs, I deliberately chose one of the live cuts from his seminal album Something/Anything. 

You Left Me Sore features that kind of sweet, smooth melodies that lift you up and hold you up there for as long as it lasts. Rundgren's sophisticated chord progression in the first half of the song is a testimony of his growth as a composer and arranger, but the real highlight -for me at least- is how simple yet effective is his arrangement for the song's chorus and outro. It really takes a lot to transform simple structuress into effective hooks, and keeping them from sounding like your run-of-the-mill campfire song, and that's only a small part of Todd's genius. 

As usual, check the song out right here, right now, in the embedded track below. Let us know what you think! Stay tuned for more quirky pop madness action!

Spacin' - Over Uneasy: Get ready 'cause it's gonna get weird!

This pretty neat artwork might give you an idea of what's to come. Read on! - Spacin' - Total Freedom's artwork on Bandcamp

Seriously, the song title's no joke. Sometimes we gotta give a run for his money to the weirdo we all carry inside. I can't think of a better way to do so than blasting this pretty little gem.

An oddity for our fancy little blog, as we usually favour shorter songs,this beast stands at 08:47 minutes long. Just picture nearly 9 minutes of continuous pounding, panning, reverb-drenched everything, with lyrics you can't quite make out and riffs Mr. Keef would be proud of. Actually, this is a key feat to this: I think this is exactly how the Rolling Stones would sound if they were sleepless, DMT loaded and paranoid for a week or more. Whether that's a compliment or not, I'll leave it to yourself. 

This spatial shebang can get a little too heavy to bear sometimes, but occasionally you're in the right mood for getting challenged with something that might otherwise bore you on a sunny day. Use it at your own risk, let these people make you overly uneasy, and if you dig'em, go like'em on the big ol' F.

Check the song out, as usual, right here, right now. Don't forget to leave a comment as well!

Roky Erickson - Cold Night For Alligators: The king of mishaps spits out greatness

The Evil One - Roky Erickson - Taken from Bandcamp - One of my all-time favorite artworks!

I wasn't sure if I had to introduce our first pill of the day's mastermind, but a couple days ago while talking to a friend of mine, I casually mentioned Roky Erickson to exemplify how psychiatrists can actually turn an already troubled person into a totally insane individual. Her reply baffled me -Roky who?. Shit, it's Roky fucking Erickson. The main composer, eccentric extraordinaire, 13th Floor Elevators frontman. America's psychedelic music forefather, what some people might call a doggone legend. Well, shocked as I was, it made me realize that I had to do something to raise awareness of Mr. Erickson's Genius. 

Today's first pill is no less than Cold Night For Alligators, off of his absolutely amazing The Evil One, a compendium of top notch sci-fi themed, kick-ass Rock and Roll tunes. It's just that, good old R'n'R executed brilliantly. Guitar harmonies and solos, power chord riffs, Roky's signature squeaky singing and his somewhat cathartic, mysterious lyrics make this song a must for any music fan, horror fan or both! It's a darned shame he didn't achieve the reach he was aiming for with this innovative and inventive effort, but those fortunate enough to have been reached are left with what would be the greatest lost masterpiece of weirdo rock. 

Check out this fine ass piece of a tune right here, right now, in the embedded track below. Leave us a comment and share the word around, or don't, whatever!

Reverberation Radio: I know that I know nothing

Hey dear readers! For this beautiful Sunday I wanted to do something a bit different from what we usually do here, so I'm going to share what has been probably the best discovery I've made over the last few years.

Music is a huge part of my life, so discovering new music everyday has been pretty much paramount in my mind. I found The Allah-las a few years back and fell in love with a sounds that had eluded me for years. It's not about the whole surf/beach/beat/merseyside/country-ish kinda thing they (and other California bands like Los Growlers) have going on; Rather, it's about this pretty vague sense of longing and belonging, a sense of times long gone and mysterious values that you can't quite put your finger in. I know it sounds confusing but bear with me, it's pretty god damn hard to explain. I grew up on all the music you can fit into the Classic Rock category, and a couples years into my first experience, I heard Progressive Rock music. I was struck immediately by this pleasant uneasiness that to this day I have a really hard time describing. From then on, I spent years and years trying to find that sound, that inexplicable stimuli that precipitated such rush of emotions.

One day, I was reading through some interview featuring Matt Correia from the Allah-las, in which the interviewer called him a prolific curator of playlists. I thought it was awesome, being known for doing just that, so I kept on reading, specifically aiming at finding the reason why he was called that. And then I found it, this aesthetically brilliant Tumblr kinda blog with, by then, 200 playlists containing roughly 10 to 12 songs each. I thought, well, that's awesome, lots of cool music to listen to. I kept browsing the playlists and realized I knew maybe one song out of each. Just one. One fucking song. I felt as if the weight of the world was pushed into my shoulders. What the fuck is all this, and more importantly, why have I never heard about any of that?.

So I began, slowly but steadily listening to everything that I was unfamiliar with. To my surprise, I experienced even stronger uneasiness and emotions than I ever experienced before with any piece of music. What's all the more interesting is, it doesn't matter what style of music the song featured. Everything sent chills down my spine... So then, I realized, it's not about this certain, very specific type of music, but rather, it's a combination of thoroughly looking into the vast extension of the undiscovered and whatever feelings it might bring, and the certainty of that immensity. 

So today, I present to you: the undiscovered. Have fun.

Mild High Club - Tesselation: Noir music for noir souls

Artwork for Skiptracing by Mild High Club - Taken from Bandcamp

Noir, noir, noir, noir. I don't know about you people, but I've always found the aesthetics surrounding Film-noir to be extremely appealing. If you're in this way like me, then you're in for a marvelous treat. This is Film-noir made music, and what's best, it's not like anything you've actually heard in that kind of movies. 

The groove, the smoothness, the velvety feel and the interesting harmonic background make this song a real standout in today's over-saturated music offer, because it still retains that pop sensitivity that is both alluring and enchanting. If you're into the kind of open, artsy songwriting that pullulated in the 60's and 70's, this is the right direction for you. As I've stated before, I hate to encompass music relating it to stuff that has been done before and the ones who've done it, and the beauty of this particular song is that I can't even do that, not even if I wanted to. It sounds fresh and original, even if it aches to decades left behind. 

I normally go for short songs, I like concise music I guess, but with this pill, I just have to go back to it and listen a million more times, because I can't seem to grasp everything the way I would like to. Yeah, it's that special. 

Follow Mild High Club on Facebook. Check this remarkable pill out, as usual, using the embedded track below. Thank me later!

Warm Soda - Waiting For Your Call: Sticky Bubble-gum Glam Punk for romantics

The song is off of Warm Soda's Someone For You - Taken from Bandcamp

Joyous things to behold abound in the mighty endless lands of the fairy tale kingdom that is the Internet. These guys I discovered a few years back while I was dangerously hooked on American power pop, with emphasis in power. 

Today's first pill offers a great deal of duality, combining the harder edge of chugging power chord riffs with genius melodies (for both vocals and guitars); frantic, fairly compressed drumming with mellow singing and the cherry on top: pinkish lyrics over a chord progression that would make Buddy Holly's crickets run for cover. If you've been following our previous posts, you should know by know that catchyness dictates what we share here for the most part. 

A couple days ago, one of my closest friends and I came to this somewhat obvious conclusion: While certainly all great songs have to be catchy, not all catchy songs are great. Well, this is a great song, and I don't think catchy quite describes what this song will do to your brain. Seriously, fucking stop. This has got to be one of history's go-to songs when it comes to holy shit get it out of my head. 

Anyway, you've been warned, click the embedded track below at your own risk. I know I would, I know you would too, oh-oh, oh-ooohhhh. Don't try to fake it.

Jethro Tull – Wond’ring Aloud

Artwork for the Tull's Manchester 1977 live Album - Taken from Mellow Records Bandcamp

If you think Rock and Roll in the late 60’s and 70’s was all about pomp, flair and self-indulgence, take a look at our first pill of the day. This scandalously simple –yet intricate– piece of work by Ian Anderson’s Jethro Tull (known for the mastery at the moment of executing their tunes) is ready to prove you wrong.  This beautifully crafted waltz-timed song just under two minutes, describing the everyday life of a loving couple, driven by Anderson’s acoustic strumming for the first half, and jumping into an orchestrated arrangement at the climax to give you that last push into the mandatory “why can’t I have that?” sobbing is a fine example of the way an outside-of-the-box kind of character would write a love song. 

Placed between two very upbeat songs on the first side of the record, it’s a breath of fresh air and a delightful variation of the general tongue-in-cheek sarcastic humor generally present in its precedent cuts. It is also great for playing in the campfire, maybe even getting to steal a few tears from the most worn out pairing of the evening.Give it a few spins to spark that love, faded by the horrors of everyday life. This right here might be the definitive sample of a feel-good song.