Sing Hollies In Reverse

From Sing Hollies In Reverse
E - Jennifer Eccles
Jon Brion - Sorry Suzanne

the hollies were among the most prominent bands of the 60's brit invasion, but i think it's fair to say their legacy is by and large under appreciated outside the ranks of the musical elitist. maybe not to the extent of perhaps the equally influential band the move, but as a top tier brit band from that era, you aren't going to hear their name (or the move for that matter) alongside the likes of the yardbirds or the the who, the zombies, small faces, dusty springfield, or even hermans hermits.

they recorded some pretty significant chart hits like long cool woman, and bus stop. but a lot of their catalog is fairly unknown. they're sort of like the worst best band of the brit invastion lot. Sing Hollies In Reverse is a tribute record recorded back in 95 and featured some pretty awesome artists - jon brion, E, Lisa Marr, and personal favorite John Easdale. Easdale is one of my favorite vocalists - he's got that great rock voice that's an alternating mix of howl and croon. Lisa Marr and Cub were one of the early underground girl rock bands (kind of like that dog), E is one of those guys who i can't decide either does more with less or less with more than any recording artist i can think of. Jon Brion... whew... i've spent countless friday nights at largo since i turned 21 in stunned admiration of his unending talents. if it makes noise, he can play it. he's a living breathing juke box of pop hits, obscurities, classics, and a downright guitar wizard. the un-amplified harpsichord sing-alongs to the beach boys 'god only knows' are about as good a time as you can have in a crowded bar.

the jon brion track suffers from his studio madness and clocks in at nearly 8 minutes - the urban mythology around it is that he was such a control freak in the studio that he would over compose his recordings. this is why he started playing live, improvisational sets at largo to begin with - to free up his approach. again, this is all just sort of the mythology surrounding friday nights at largo. i can't really say how true it is or not.

Sunday - Molly Malones

Sunday, Dec 18th
Tandemoro @ Molly Malones

the guys in tandemoro are finally booking some live shows including a gig in ojai (the scene there is crazy i'm sure...) and another one on sunday at molly malones. not my favorite place, but you should definitely check the show out. the guys play some very pleasing indie folkish rock. the line-up still seems to be shifting a bit, but they've got it figured out enough to make their way through a set. you can check them out on myspace.com/tandemoromusic, or their website tandemoro.com

check out the video for Stars - nothing groundbreaking, but the photography is pretty as hell and the song is sweeeeeeeet.

what's a vaganza, and can i get extra?

there was a time where a couple friends and i thought there was nothing funnier that making a joke in the form of a "two part question"... there was also a time when i loved nothing but punk rock. well, that's still pretty much true, but punk isn't punk any more. we were calling it indie for a while, but that died a few years ago. strictly as names, art-rock is pretentious (and generally includes music too horrible to listen too), and alt-rock is too close to alt-country, so what are we left with other than the fact that we're running out of names for things?

i'm not really sure... but the recently completed (and by recently i mean today .... and by completed i mean i might tweak a song here or there, but it's pretty much fit for consumption) Sintake Vol. 1 might inspire you to your own nouveau nomenclature for the "new-roc". now this shit sure ain't new, but shout if you need a copy all the same.

as far as the track list goes, it seems to have settled in at 23 tracks and it leads off like this...

-monsieur villain hardcore