Hans Kung Tracing The Way

The Way We Live wasn't a terribly commercial or compelling name for a rock band, and Tractor is a yet more awkward and less appealing moniker. Yet, for some reason, that's what the Way We Live changed their name to between the 1971 A Candle for Judith album (which turned out to be the only the Way We Live LP) and their 1972 follow-up, Tractor. Both albums are combined onto one CD on this 1994 reissue by See For Miles. A Candle for Judith was uneven, second-division, early-'70s British hippie rock, divided between lumpy, bluesy hard rock and far folkier, pastoral, acoustic-flavored musings.

The first time Dandelion label head John Peel heard the Way We Live, courtesy of a demo tape they mailed him, he thought someone was playing a trick on him - some accomplished superstar band, perhaps. Only when he actually met the duo did he discover that they really were as good as their demo insisted, and A Candle for Judith - itself comprising exactly the same songs as that original tape - allows the listener to share in Peel's amazement. Eight tracks find the band drifting across the musical spectrum, sometimes heavy (the opening "King Dick II" sounds almost Sabbath-like), sometimes folky, but never less than fascinating. Comparisons to Pink Floyd, one of the few bands to exercise similar disparate energies over the course of one album, are misleading, however…

1989 Hans Theessink ("The Euro-Bluesman") recorded this album of originals, covers of prewar country blues (Son House's "Grinning in Your Face," Garfield Akers' "Dough Roller Blues"), even an arrangement of Jimmy Cliff's "Living in Limbo." He is ably accompanied by a 10-piece band, including horn section, saxes, tablas and more.

Kurt Cobain made a lot of mistakes in his life but loving the Vaselines was not one of them. Nirvana covered one of their songs for their MTV Unplugged session, two other covers show up on the Incesticide record and as Kurt might tell you if he were alive today, from 1986 to 1989 the Vaselines were the best pop band on the planet. Sub Pop was kind enough to cash in on the Nirvana connection and on The Way of the Vaselines: A Complete History, release everything the Vaselines recorded. From the stomping, singalong opener "Son of a Gun" to the distorted and nasty "Let's Get Ugly" 17 tracks later, this collection is the Holy Grail of indie pop music. It's unfailingly amateurish, almost completely silly, occasionally quite perverted, and always about sex. The music has the simplicity and ear-grabbing melodies of the best bubblegum, the loud and semi-competent guitars of punk, and some of the attitude and lo-fi sound of the noise rock scenesters like the Jesus & Mary Chain.