Initially coming together during a Fontana-era lull in The Pretty Things’ prodigious career, the band’s now-legendary body of work for music library de Wolfe as The Electric Banana saw their alter-egos become parallel universe superstars, their work utilised by film and TV producers in everything from soft-porn skin-flicks, a Norman Wisdom vehicle and horror classic Dawn Of The Dead to small-screen ratings winners like Dr. Who, The Sweeney and Minder.
The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970, by songwriters/multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterised by a fusion of Beatlesque pop, classical arrangements, and futuristic iconography. After Wood's departure in 1972, Lynne became the band's leader, arranging and producing every album while writing virtually all of their original material…
First, a few myths get cleared up by the very existence of this box, which goes far beyond the original Columbia compilations with the same name. For starters, Columbia goes a long way to setting the record straight that Charlie Christian was not the first electric guitarist or the first jazz guitarist or the first electric guitarist in jazz. For another, they concentrate on only one thing here: documenting Christian's seminal tenure with Benny Goodman's various bands from 1939-1941. While in essence, that's all there really is, various dodgy compilations have been made advertising Christian playing with Lester Young or Lionel Hampton.
A Love Electric is a critically acclaimed rock trio born out of Mexico City's jazz scene. Todd Clouser, of Minneapolis, MN, USA, Hernan Hecht, a longtime MX resident from Argentina, and Aaron Cruz, a Mexico City native, form a band that over 4 years, 4 records, and nearly 500 concerts, has consistently accomplished the uncommon, making music on their own terms and touring the world. “A savage guitarist, a merciless drummer, an enormous bassist” says Mexico City rock festival giant Vive Latino.
Although they certainly had an experimental and exploratory side, at least for a garage band, the Electric Prunes were always considered first and foremost a singles band by Reprise Records, and the group's singles were carefully mixed to sound perfect coming through a mono car radio, while the LP versions of the same songs would be mixed for a home-based stereo system, which means the radio mixes were much punchier. This 24-track set collects all of the Prunes' singles for Reprise during the heady psychedelic period of 1966 through 1969, including the classic hit "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)," the Bo Diddley-rhythmed "Get Me to the World on Time," and other oddities that didn't get much or any radio time like "Wind-Up Toys," which rides an intriguing, staggered beat and shows that this band could have done just fine if left alone to develop.
It shouldn't come as a surprise to any fan of Nick Moss that a band signed to his Blue Bella label and produced by him would have a gritty, tough and raw approach similar to his own. The Chicago-based five-piece Kilborn Alley Blues Band recorded its first album in only three days, so the feel of Put It in the Alley is as immediate and uncompromising as a live show. Songs shift moods from the basic, stripped down Windy City blues of "The Blues Takes Me In" to the Southern-fried R&B of "Thousand Miles." Lead singer/guitarist/frontman Andrew Duncanson sounds somewhat like a cross between Wet Willie's Jimmy Hall and early Boz Scaggs, using his soulful croon to soften the attack of the band's gruffer sound. But it's harp player Joe Asselin, who has surely listened to his Little Walter albums, that adds feral heat, especially on the seven-minute slow blues "The Breakaway." All but one of the songs is original, and although none of them reinvent the blues wheel, they are all solid vehicles for the band to lay into.
Smokin' Joe Kubek's debut album is a delight. Kubek leads his band through a set of smoking hot Texas and Memphis blues, delivered with passion – they can play this music with precision, but they choose to be looser and more fun than most traditionalists. Kubek's a skillful guitarist and B'Nois King, his vocalist and rhythm guitarist, can play nearly as well and their duels are the high watermark of an already wonderful album.
The second part of a trilogy of live albums paying tribute to Ronnie Wood's early musical inspirations, Mr. Luck: A Tribute to Jimmy Reed – Live at Royal Albert Hall captures a November 1, 2013 concert at Royal Albert Hall. Mick Taylor sits in with the Ronnie Wood Band, while Bobby Womack, Paul Weller, and Mick Hucknall all take a turn in the spotlight – enough guests to grab the attention of the curious but not enough to overwhelm the proceedings. What happened on the stage was a spirited, loving tribute to the great bluesman Jimmy Reed, whose boogies and shuffles are easy to play and tricky to master. Wood and Taylor have long since absorbed the intricacies of the interplay of Reed and Eddie Taylor, staying faithful to the spirit and opening up the blues to a wealth of solos, including some appropriately greasy harp. There are no reinventions here, but there didn't need to be: saluting Jimmy Reed with just the right amount of heart and humor makes Mr. Luck a rocking good time.
Based out of North Central Florida and inspired by classic & contemporary blues, the Bridget Kelly Band has placed their unique stamp on the "electric blues" genre, with high-energy live performances and a hybrid sound that mixes Texas, Chicago, and Memphis Blues with various Southern Blues traditions and blues-rock of the 1960's and 70's. The powerful and sultry vocals of singer Bridget Kelly and the incendiary lead guitar work of Tim Fik forge a signature hybrid sound that combines female urban blues with riff-driven rockin' blues guitar; held together by a dynamic rhythm section comprised of Alex Klausner on drums and Mark Armbrecht on bass.