From the Greenpeace Canada website

‘’The two-disc CD takes you back to October 16th 1970, when 10,000 people gathered in the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver to hear Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Phil Ochs and support the very first Greenpeace action ever taken – the legendary voyage to Amchitka to protest nuclear bomb testing.’’

The Protest was unsuccessful and the testing went ahead, But the War was far from lost and Greenpeace went on to become an extremely powerful Voice for those who cared about the Earth and Environment and against those politicians and business men who through action and inaction threatened the delicate balance of true nature.

NBT is proud to have been given a chance to interview Barbara Stowe, daughter of Irving Stowe, one of the founders of Greenpeace. She is author of the insightful and touching liner notes for the ‘Amchitka 1970’ CD.

NBT: Why the release NOW, why wasn’t this put out in the weeks, months, years after the actual concert, did it have to do with technical problems or getting the release of the Artist’s music from their record companies and so on?

In the beginning, Greenpeace was a local organization consisting of at most a couple of dozen volunteers, and the time and energy needed to see such a project through would have been overwhelming. We were too busy trying to stop nuclear testing worldwide!  My father would have been the logical person to consider such a thing, given his passion for music, chutzpah and his legal background.  But he got cancer and died in 1974.

My family has always hoped that Greenpeace would be able to get permissions and release this music, but just to get the ear of busy artists like Joni and James was a daunting prospect.  In 2003 my brother got the ball rolling by transferring the music to CD, and he presented my mother and myself with a CD each as Christmas presents.  He is a meticulous person and he’d timed each song and crafted a few paragraphs about the concert and the technical recording details.  He even used photos of the artists taken at the concert for the covers.  He realized he’d created something Greenpeace could use as a prototype to seek permissions, so he proposed the project to Greenpeace.  When they sent John Timmins out to Vancouver, I knew they’d found exactly the right person.  John is a founding member of the Cowboy Junkies — a renowned Canadian band — and also a Foundations Officer for Greenpeace, and given his passion for the project, his background as a professional musician, and his experience in activism, he was perfect, and we were very excited.  That was two and a half years ago.

NBT: Have you ever visited Amchitka?

Yes. I was part of the “Bering Witness” campaign in the summer of 2007, when the Greenpeace ship Esperanza sailed to Amchitka.  The whole trip totally blew my mind.

NBT: World Powers are always wanting to re-activate Nuclear Testing, in your opinion is there a solution to this problem, or will Greenpeace and others still be fighting the ‘good fight’ 20 years from now?

The solution is clear.  Nuclear weapons threaten us all, and should be eradicated from the face of the earth.  But I’m not naïve.  I suspect Greenpeace may still be fighting to end nuclear testing in 20 years time.  Nonetheless I refuse to relinquish hope, and I’m glad that leaders like President Obama and Russian President Medvedev are talking about denuclearization. Greenpeace can help hold their feet to the fire and push them to make good on their promises.

NBT: The 3 artists perform and create in ways that are very different to one another, how did this change in styles go down with the audience of the time?

There was tension because everyone wanted to hear their favorite artists, and this electricity was intensified by the fact that it was one of the most politically charged days in Canadian history.  Martial law had been declared at 4 o’clock that morning, in an attempt to quell terrorism in Quebec.  So when Phil Ochs, who is a fervent activist, got onstage and started to play, the mood was heightened. Someone put up a banner about the War Measures Act (martial law) and someone else tore it down.  And you can hear Phil on the CD, saying “I never played in a police state before”.

But people were ultimately respectful, and in this sense, the whole concert became a kind of visceral metaphor for peace.  Because there could have been real trouble, but there wasn’t.  I mean, there was zero security!  All the ushers that night were volunteers who had no experience, and everyone just sat wherever they liked…you can see in the photo, look at the floor, there are no aisles, the whole floor is covered with people sitting on every inch of it!

Part of the reason there was no trouble was respect for the cause, and part of it is down to Chilliwack, who played this brilliant set that got us on our feet dancing for joy.  I’d never heard Chilliwack live and it was a revelation.  Recently I asked Bill Henderson, the lead singer, how they did it, because one song seemed to segue magically into another, I can’t even remember any separation.  He said that the way they were playing then was to start with quiet sounds that served to ground both themselves and the audience, and then gradually develop those sounds into melodies and rhythms, and eventually find a way into one of their songs, and then into another, and so on.  It takes a lot of trust and vulnerability to do that and I think the audience really responded in kind, so that a special bond developped between performer and audience. And then, James further chilled out the crowd, I’m still amazed at how he did that, it felt like we were almost hypnotized with bliss.  He was singing us lullabies, you know, “Sweet Baby James”…”won’t you let me go down in your dreams…and rockabye sweet baby James”.  And Joni, she just let her lyrics speak: “bombers turning into butterflies above our nation”.  It was really beautiful.  I sound like I’m back in the Seventies now, don’t I?

NBT: Did you get to meet the singers? Offstage what were they like?

Phil Ochs came to our house for dinner before the concert.  He was outraged that we were under marital law. Canada was considered such a benign country, a peaceable kingdom. But Phil kept his fury in check when it came to personal relations.  He gave my brother a cigar from Cuba, which Bobby treasured for years.

When Phil came back to our house several years later on another tour I had the impression of a gentle and deeply tormented man.  He was so depressed that when I later heard of his suicide I was very much saddened but not really surprised.

I didn’t get to meet Joni, but my brother did.  He went to the airport with my father to pick them up.  He told me there was only room for one other person in the car besides my father, and that was him, and I had to go to school!  And I did!  I’m still kicking myself.  But people at school were psyched about the concert, so that was pretty cool.  My brother saw Joni and James kissing in the back seat of the limo, they were in love.

I met James backstage on a later tour. He invited us into his dressing room and he had that Southern charm.  He was extremely cool and good looking and I’m sure I blushed to the roots of my hair!

NBT: You mentioned your Dad’s love of all forms of music, in 1970 what were the Teenagers such as yourself listening to?

Some of the favorites for my crowd were Joni Mitchell; The Beatles; Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; Leonard Cohen; Laura Nyro; Jefferson Airplane and Simon & Garfunkel.  We also loved Chilliwack and Small Faces, and until the concert, I hadn’t heard James Taylor, but after I heard him I became a big fan.

NBT: Why is Chilliwack not on the CD?

What happened was, during the concert, my father saw a tape recorder under the stage, and he went to the sound engineer and said, “Dave, I see you’re taping this.”  Dave said yes, I always tape my concerts for technical reasons, and Dad said, I want a copy.  Then he went to the artists’ managers and asked for permission to keep the tape for personal use.  All the managers agreed, except Chilliwack’s. So the copy that my family had all these years never had Chilliwack on it.  During the past year, Bill Henderson launched a valiant search to find the master tape which might have still had Chilliwack’s portion on it, but he couldn’t find it.

NBT: The proceeds of this release, what will Greenpeace use the money for?

To support Greenpeace campaigns: climate change, forests, oceans toxics, sustainable agriculture, disarmament and peace.

NBT: In your opinion: Were the 70s more optimistic/hopeful than this day and age, could this concert have happened in 2009? This release must bring many bitter sweet memories to you; tell us how you see the Political world, the music world. Are there still free world activists willing to risk life and limb to change the status quo? 

Oh, why not ask me some hard questions, Martin? Ha ha ha ha!  Actually I love questions like this that make me think.  To answer your first question:  Was the 70’s a more optimistic and hopeful time?  It was in some ways.  Many people believed that existing power structures and institutions had to be smashed and a new way of living had to be created. In this sense the ‘70’s was more optimistic because people really believed that a more utopian, peaceful existence was possible. And the social revolutions of the Sixties and ‘70’s, the Civil Rights, Women’s Rights and Gay Rights movements did so much to further change.   But these movements were driven by historic tragedy as well as hope, they were driven by anger, and by a willingness to die for a cause.  So while there was optimism, there was also this dark underside of rage and the struggle for freedom was fierce and painful.  Then there was the Vietnam War which literally tore American families apart. And the music of the day, which can’t be separated from the times, was driven by this darkness and a soul-searching at the deepest level, as well as a corresponding and opposite belief in love and hope, peace and change.  You can hear the music reflect all this, whether it’s Phil Ochs raging “I’m Not Marching Anymore” or Joni’s bombers turning into butterflies, in “Woodstock”. 

Your second question, could this concert have happened in 2009?  I don’t know.  I think great musicians like Joni, James, Phil and Chilliwack, who have so much heart and soul, will always respond to an appeal as urgent as the one to stop nuclear testing on Amchitka.  U2 is a modern example of artists responding to urgent need, on both anti-poverty campaigns and environmental campaigns.  Which, incidentally, thankfully, no longer have to be considered separate campaigns, now that anti-poverty activist Kumi Naidoo has been appointed head of Greenpeace International.  But I digress.  To get back to the point:  I believe great artists will always commit for a worthy cause, but as for the nature of the thing, that is a concert with no backup musicians, no visuals, no big screens, just one musician and a guitar commanding a huge arena?  I don’t know.

Also there is something magical in the spontaneity of these performances, perhaps because the artists didn’t know they were being recorded, which is ironic given that we’re so glad now that it was recorded.  The instant musicians step onstage nowadays a million iphones capture their every breath.  There’s something sad about that, because when you’re recording, you’re not present. It breaks the intimate connection between performer and audience, and that changes the performance.

As for the third question, how do I see the music world and the political world?  Well in terms of music I’m overwhelmed by the wealth of music now available to us! It’s wonderful, but also I think today it’s more difficult for artists because the bigger the talent pool, the more they have to fight for attention, and art and public relations don’t go together. I’d like to see artists more nurtured and respected and the almighty buck take a back seat.  When commerce takes precedence it weakens us culturally and lessens our humanity. Phil Ochs says it pretty clearly in “Chords of Fame”.

As for politics…it’s easy to live in fear and anger — the Bush Administration was driven by it — but I think the brave thing to do is to try to live in hope, no matter how difficult things become, and we couldn’t be facing greater challenges than we are in this millennium.

And as for whether there are still free world activists willing to risk life and limb to change the status quo?  Absolutely!  I saw them on the Esperanza.  Greenpeace is full of activists who are utterly committed to peaceful non-violent action.  It inspires me and gives me hope.

You will be able to hear Barbara herself say a few words and listen to trax from the CD on the NBT ‘best of 2009`Special 21^st December 09

http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/

Learn more about the release here:

www.myspace.com/amchitka

www.twitter.com/amchitka1970

www.facebook.com/pages/Amchitka/60751539970

Sheffield Streets   - Amy Allison (Urban Myth Recording Collective)

In this, the hardest thing is….

I must forget, ignore, her cult, her father, her partners, her history, the players, the craftsmen. I must disregard the many lines of text glowing from pc screens and smoldering on white paper press releases, and take the music the words the mood and the tension and write about that, forget the rest.

Her latest creation is like a cat that has not yet learned to purr, a cat that cannot fully relax, is coiled within its soul tight to the point of breaking, a cat who desires the comfort of love, of release, but the emotions the fears the memories do not allow it to reach that comfort yet. Which is wonderful for us, cause instead we are given these songs these gateways to this strange exquisite world.

She manages to make us nostalgic for places we have never been to, fall in love with ghosts of angels, and makes us want to kiss the totally WRONG type of person and flirt with those monsters we concoct in the mists of our fine delusions.

In many ways these are recipes for escape.

They are maps of dream worlds and sketches of broken hearts, scrawled pretty then crumpled up and thrown into the fire where they turn into jittering words that slide into tunes, which play gentle before us.

One of the albums of the year for me.

http://www.amyallisonmusic.com/

Listen to tracks from this album on this AND next weeks NBT podcast

http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/

Somewhere Up North – Meet Citizen K (Paraply Records)

Oh there is almost nothing as entrancing than the lonely sound of the trumpet played on the ocean’s (or river’s) edge. The sound sets the scene, the mood, gently takes hold of the emotions and readies us for a personal conversation with the artist.

The singer combines the delicate detachment of the European composer with the intimacy of the New Folk balladeer, sometimes within the same song we are taken from comfortable living rooms, just us and the man and his guitar, and swooped up, flying across vast expanses of territory, long silent roads and majestic mountains.

These are whispered tales of fragile yet dazzling relationships doing harmonic battle with an scratchy cinematic twitch and glare. There are hidden treasures in the details within the words and visceral arrangements. A rare delight is taken in the addition of a piano riff there, an organ twirl here, seductive spoonfuls of colour, dropped in, then mixed perfect, calm, till the result is a sigh and a dream.

This is one of those albums, that while you are listening to it, you want to start all over again as soon as possible, so that you can discover yet another thought, another texture, another revelation.

This independent beauty can be filed along side Grizzly Bear and The Low Anthem as one of the best folk/alt country releases this year.

Find out more here

http://www.paraplyrecords.se/

And listen to tracks from this album on the NBT Podcast

http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=543216

Another Last Call – Doug Folkins (Independent Release)

There is something very Nick Lowe/Dave Edmunds about this new collection from songwriter Folkins, something very good, very pure and very in love with good Pop.

The opening track (and single) Calico Girl drifts from the speakers in a breezy Beatles like harmonica, a subtle uncomplicated tune wrapped around lyrics that penetrate deeper into the psyche than realized.

Comparisons have been made to the folkpunk ‘n’ pop of the Pogues and indeed there is that barroom swagger and glee in a lot of the tracks, which added to the vibrancy of the Levellers at their best, let the tragic edges of human behavior colour murk and heart, light and shade to the bounciest of tunes.

And just when the old time pub songs threaten to get slightly too much for modern rock ears, Folkins craftily adds dollops of blues guitar and tiny tinges of modern Americana to his solid creations  making this a truly international sounding release.

Find out more here

 http://www.dougfolkins.com/

And hear trax from this album on the NBT Podcast

http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=524299

Detroit Rebellion – Deitroit Rebellion (Ramp Media Lab)

Stripped down straight into chug-a-lug modern blues, why modern? Its just bounce forward voice and guitar to start with sure (like passing a ragged old house and hearing the tail end of a CSN+Y acoustic jam), but the modern is in the heart, the atmosphere.

This is a soundtrack for long days of hard work and introspection, solitary journeys through the hours. A world of blurred roads and untrusting housewives peering from windows at you, trapped in the heat and your job and your thoughts.  And then..

 This music..

This simple strong stuff.

Saves you just a little.

These are stories that don’t always have a happy ending; sometimes the only redemption is in the telling, the sweet shrug and the moving on. Then again these are also stories that have a quirky wry sense of hope, a push, and a nudge, and a casual grin in the right direction.

Imagine the intricate moods and arrangements of the Violent Femmes early songs, condensed into this one guitar, this one singer, how strange it is that you find yourself wanting to dance silly crazy as if you are at some punk cowboy club.

There is subtle protest, more observation than angst, there is the slight take on the love song, detached but sincere and utterly captivating. There are possible confessions and there are secrets possibly revealed, but they are all wound tightly into the music.

For something so sparse, the rewards in listening to this are infinite.

A wonderful discovery.

http://detroitrebellion.com

Hear tracks and thoughts from this collection on the NBT podcast very soon

http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=543216

Jebediah Goodthrust – Jebediah Goodthrust (Choose To Lose Music)

Ashes Of Bridges – The Hit & Mrs. (Choose To Lose Music)

The lonely souls take a darker path and the mystery figure heard on demos and 4 track gifts comes into slightly sharper focus.

So ok let’s take Goodthrust for the moment. Oh the boy/man sure dances weird, it’s like the ghost of Buddy Holly has discovered distortion and spent the afterlife catching up on Bob Mould’s career. Sometimes you have popBoys, kinda clean and neatly beardy trimmed, emotional and polite, (where did these nice kids get their tattoos?) sometimes you have the scrawl of letters and surges on the back of a glossy magazine, an escape in the turmoil if you will, and those popBoys I mentioned slink away un-noticed and (yay) unloved.  It’s the time of that weird dancer and his deconstruction of country and chart tunes.

Cap in hand we say good evening to the Hit and Mrs, asking quietly why the apprehension? We are told it’s coming on cold, cold days and we notice that while the tunes are almost folk-rock nostalgic, the themes drift into more uncomfortable areas, one is reminded of that old 50s movie about the boy swimming out there in the middle of the lake, losing energy, a woman watching him sink, some beauty in the fear.

Glancing back at Jebediah, he seems to have aged slightly, lost the Holly glasses that’s for sure, and the way he holds that guitar, why mother its almost sexual, this isn’t pop this is alternative the very American lo-fi simple, small town boy self release hand printed sleeves alternative, singing honest to the fortunate few, Friday night aint ever gonna die.

We follow the Hit and Mrs into another room, a family room where stories are sung, intricate sketches of places and faces. Slipping into the not too safe thoughts of volatile wallflowers, we are taken back to Murmer era REM, and I for one love this sinking into the murk, and shadows.

Simply put

 The Goodthrust is dirty delightful

The Hit and Mrs is something that slinks in and quietly chats to the heart and soul. And for my money the best thing the Heise Brothers have done in ANY of their disguises.

Get these great collections here

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/hitmrs2

https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jebediahgoodthrust

Secrecy and Sex – Readers Wives (360degree Music)

You have to love the slow build pop song, the one that curls Out and stretches cat-like steady, ready soon for the leap, sure and controlled and fierce, straight into our fickle hearts. Add  deadpan humour carefully calibrated to be not TOO clever (which would snap us from our trance) or TOO self-aware (which would merely itch and irritate) and BOOM, a sly BOOM at that, we are sexually attracted to this music.

As the bar man once said, it’s the kind of collection that make the boys smile and the girls dance.

Then ok, this is Costello for the new century, NewWavePub-Rock sharp bitter Bubblegum, hey forget the fast twist away, this has hooks that are shiny sharp and lets face it, we ALL want to see a song called ‘Advertising Heroin’ knock the latest X factor off the top of the charts.

It’s a rare pleasure indeed to hear hints of the Last Shadow Puppets socializing with bits of Randy Newman all within one EP.

Then walking out of the chaos of the gig, we discover the poet bum outside suddenly insightful, minimal Jamie T, we stop and listen, feeling weirdly touched, caught out in a very good way.

There is tenderness when needed and ice cold detachment when desired. It’s a collection that rewards with every new listen.

Cant wait for the album.

http://readerswives.360degreemusic.com/

Hear a track or two from this EP on the NBT Podcast going out on the 28^th October 09

 And then more in depth on the show going out on the 10^th November 09

http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/

Sounds Of The 504 – Broken Keys (Independent Release)

Intuitions

Feelings.

Images conquered up by the music, hazy for a while, jelly-dreamlike then slowly solidifying, Polaroid snapshots, the picture shimmies across the surface.

The Beats the thing.

Swing  with him, there is water in the air, summer perhaps, sticky bright, the ballroom hints of sadness, ‘We Miss You’ indeed.

Time travel down the banks of the great river, we glide past great trees and old houses, the drummStutter is our uneasy machine, the song the very fadeout even full of a quiet longing.

Rise up fallen soldiers,  reach out for the hands of the grieving and shy ladies,  elegant but jerky ballets for the almost forgotten, these things are more than mood, more than beats laid down for some future sonic adventure. (Though listen hard and listen long and in some song played  weeks, months years from now there they will be)

They are sonic captures of what twists and crawls and dances in the heart of the music-maker.

Find out more

http://amiestreet.com/music/broken-keys/sounds-of-the-504/

hear tracks from this collection of beats and sounds on the NBT podcast going out on the 3^rd November 09

http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/

Keep The Change – Spoonfull and D-Mitch (Downwrite Records)

Right from the opening title track we are aware that we will be taken for a strangely reticent ride on the dark thoughts highway. The music doesn’t so much pump out but slithers Pixie snake bass crawl from the player. Indie blues knocked up to story telling, each song a novella, cracked insights into volatile souls.

These are songs cut to the bone, minimal barely pausing for breath, not resting, letting the sometime alt folk clatterNstrum fight along/against the turbulence.

Brooklyn Heartbreak veers from high romantic Portishead ballad, to 3am world weary resignation, only the music perhaps will save the story teller from this damning self knowledge.

Unlike some strong ego damaged boys that became international whiners, this collective is in love with the dirt and vulnerability of the acoustic, the electric lo-fi, ironic dancers and tortured torch singers. It’s a sound a mood that slinks in, makes itself at home struggling out of a mini van stranded in the desert or a neon club situated in deepest coldest Berlin.

What attracts and astounds with this album is how brilliantly observed the situations and characters are.  Take ‘Guilty Pleasure’ for example and the opening description of the women in the environmentally friendly car, note the humor gentle yet still sharp. No need for the video here, the song, the music tells it all.

Its these wry portraits, these sly vignettes coupled with an instinctively apt sonic design, that elevates this release head and shoulders above so much that has come out this year.

Find out for yourself

http://www.myspace.com/spoonfullhiphop

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/Spoonfull2

http://www.myspace.com/dmitch330

Tracks from this cool album will be played on the NBT Podcast this upcoming 3^rd Nov

http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/

Also catch them on the special NBT show hosted by Hypoetical and Memphis Reigns

http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=532104

Here She Comes a Tumblin’ – BirdEatsBaby (Birdeatsbaby)

Once there was Cat-Scratch Glitter and wounded cabaret howls, charged shots of glowing liquid poured across lips of the harshest red. Everything shuddered, everything shivered, and the laughter was strange and sometimes cruel.

It was beautiful.

Now keeping those thrills, but adding extra dimensions, comes this collection.

Bravely, we are now not only shown the garish stage and the freaks, puppets, divas, exhibitionists, scary sexy monsters but… the quiet bedrooms, the rumpled beds where partners may or may not sleep, the view of empty streets from its lonely windows.

We are made curious about the sadness, the stillness that may go on BETWEEN these songs.

Make no mistake this is still a thrill ride, full of carnival hipsters hustling supreme, and frantic punters screaming along with the dangerous rides, but here, and there, and here again, not so hidden away, the girls and boys dare to show their tenderness, even their dreams, unfolded carefully and placed in our grubby hands.

On one page selling this CD they are described as emo, but please don’t be fooled, there is no soft boy rich kid pampered star angstNwhines here. The lipstick is smeared from the sheer exuberant kiss and the eyeliner stains are from tears arrived honestly from fits of giggles and tears that fought hard to escape the calm internal.

There are pop songs to be sung loud by party girls, alive and free holding tight to the simple expectation of a great night out, and there are lullabies of the crooked kind that soothe and push the soul into a welcome unease with extra measure.

There is magic here. Give it a listen to.

http://www.birdeatsbaby.co.uk/

Karkari –Mammut (Record Records)

I could tell you that Mammut sound like a frosty and refreshing mix of the best of those American 4AD groups (Belly and Throwing Muses) a bit of Bjork, a spoonful of Sonic Youth twisted into the pop sensibilities that Catatonia got so right. I could tell you that the band has had (already)  three number one hits in their native Iceland and managed to cause a stir at the SXSW festival. I could leave it at that, and move on, pretty happy that you curious gentle reader, will go seek out the band and their music. Or you could think I am spitting out (politely of course) a bunch of facts and you will remain sadly disenthralled.

I shall instead shake the songs up in a virtual hat of the finest cloth, and let them hit the senses, and report what occurs.

I am reminded of old toys, cherished by teenagers in smiling nostalgia for their innocent child hood, toys that are still picked up and loved and kept in view as new makeup is applied and new adventures of the heart dreamt about. These plaything have an endearing roughness to them, all is not shiny shiny and plastic disposable.

I think of glam rock bands strutting their stuff on small Televisions in untidy sitting rooms early Friday evenings, the smell of dinner overpowered by the sweeter smell of the night (clubs) ahead.

Some songs make me think of mosh pits and bodies and beer bottles disengaging themselves from sweaty hands and crashing kamikaze to the pavement to join the wrecks of their fellow soldiers. Some songs make me think of almost empty studios, musicians huddled in the centre of a landscape of once twisting now still cables and wires and leads.

Some songs make me close my eyes and fall back, not thinking of the getting UP. Some songs make me want to grin and cook and dance and shop.

See what they do for you

http://www.myspace.com/mammut

Catch both bands on this NBT podcast

http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=526901

With much more to come.

Barely Exposed – Grindhouse (Droolboy Productions)

Brightly glowing machine gun splatter and squelch counterpoint sounds from some wicked exotic elsewhere nightclub of the senses. The girl swims among the clitter clatter drumming, sings, ‘’Life is not so ordinary,’’ indeed.

This is twisted bubblegum, pulled out into quirky shapes, bleeding dark red beneath the plastic manipulations, a futureShock dance club as imagined by time-travelers from the 80s, their eyeliner smudged with true tears, their lipstick smeared hard against the cold glass of now.

Cold hearted telephones, jittery machines, syncopated sighs, often slide into the swing forward march of the grind house, bringing feathery fear and nervous delight along with frantic little stops, stop-motion, stop-starts.

Stop

Then start all over again.

Then a curveball, a teenage ballad almost, something to show off with her first necklace, first small earring, sometimes it seems the rain is always here, see how it makes everything shine so.

This is euro electronica filtered thru American new wave carried with care by rough souls who are learning to twist and fly, who are hoping to find out, if the clouds are really candy floss sticky.

Make your own decisions

 http://grindhouse-music.com/

Puppetbox – Puppetbox (Independent Release)

The PowerPunks met the New Wave at the high school prom, the pretty keyboard (in her best dress) asked the Guitar for a dance. He put down his bottle of beer and gave her this hectic twirl. And as the bass and the drum stomped along, it was, love at very 1^st sight.

This is the Cars zoomed into the new century, the sly children of (before) Kiss and (tomorrow’s) Killers. It is also a document of a time that is already changing, warping, melting in front of our very eyes as the Puppets make a new box of sounds.

Which leads us to

Runtime Error – Puppetbox  (Independent Release)

The puppets grow up, discover the sensual and discover the darkness. Their parties are louder, the chaos is gentle with hints of horror film glee. The puppets still want you to dance, they want you up against the wall wide mirror, reflected and distorted at the same time.

There are howls in the verses now, the rolling thunder is sped up and coughed out, the lightning illuminates and ambiguously camouflages. Those wicked old uncles from Kraftwerk have paid a visit all the way from Germany and in Triple Down made themselves totally at home.

The box is still full of hooks though, gleamy shiny bright hooks, making sure the songs attach themselves to the charts in our hearts and never ever leave go.

And still the puppets mutate, listen out ask for, the Disco Riot demo and find out for yourselves

http://www.thepuppetbox.com/

hear trax from both of these bands on the NBT Dark electric podcast going out slightly later than planned this Tuesday 15^th Sept 09.

http://nbtdarkelectric.podomatic.com/

Bending The Knotted Oak – Melody Klyman (BlackWing Records)

 The singer attacks at dawn. Through the mist, she gallops drumPoP powerful, the tribe swirl around, advance with twisted cool ballet moves.

Now through the haze a hint of Natasha Kahn (but with dirt on her face and charcoal smudges on her fingertips), now through the glare a glimmering of Florence Welch (but with restrained elegance). Now through butterfly wing reflection we catch sight of Melody, a gift of drama and richly chaotic dreams, perfect for these dull yet troubled times.

Then the mist evaporates and we salute the wasted DJ, dancing under neon and primal flowGlow bouncing colour. The robot plays the hook, mechanical messy longing to be Superhuman, just like the singer.

Pounding (angry?) piano introduces Thrill Seeker, which is followed by Calico the name suggesting a softer approach, but the vapors here solidify, the harmonies weave a strange fear into the sensual, the song digs closer, closer to the core of us and we listen and we stop time.

Is it strange, when listening to I Isolate to be reminded of Peter Gabriel, the times he allowed himself to be caressed by Mistress Kate?

Finally we are invited to Sink Then Swim, to let go and let the soulful voices take us where they wish. The ambiguous swirls within this song, this collection actually, allow us to drift right close up to the internal, the personal, the very secret heart, and then with glamour and glimmer and charm, deflect us away.

We can only wish, to start the song again,

And this time wonder

What will be revealed?

Find out more for yourself of this beautiful music here

http://www.melodyklyman.com

Trapeze – HuDost (Open Sesame Music)

A lot of bands would close their show with a song like the opening storm here, Trespasser, epic and elemental; it grows from a driving folk ballad into a barely restrained rock creature. No false dramatics here, no insincere power chord Frankenstein, singer floating in the clouds and guitarist growling posing for the mosh pit. No. Here are musicians completely in sync with one another, letting the rhythms unravel, tangled breathless, fiery.

One of the delights of this collection is that it refuses to be pinned down to any one genre or style, but still does not lose its sense of self, its essence of something serene and complete. So we are invited to travel from world music to poignant alternative country, from sly hints of old time progressive, to examples of sheer pop ingenuity.

Knowing the backstory of the albums creation (during the making of Trapeze singer/writer Moksha Sommer was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had to prepare herself for surgery) one expects some degree of angst and perhaps fear to pervade the tracks, that it is not the case at all, is a tribute to the strength of Sommer and her partner Jemal Wade Hines.

Rather the songs and the words and the music they float upon showcase a brave steady and rather breathtaking sense of acceptance and hope. This is an album full of the quiet huge joy of living and dreaming, and even when there is loss, it is golden.

For this reviewer, still in awe of Europe’s winter (detached as I am now from the heat of Africa), the mini suite First Snow –Waking-Last Snow is the stand out wonderment in this set that roars from delicacy to raging. In their world there is never total darkness, rather a Dawn, waiting to happen.

Share the light

http://www.hudost.com

Catch songs from both of these albums on the NBT Podcast going out on the 9^th Sept 09

http://www.nextbigthing.libsyn.com