Freak Out! [REVIEW]

Music in the 1960s can be split pretty cleanly down the middle, between more ordinary music in the early 60s and more confusing and strange music in the late 60s. It's clear that the juxtaposition between these two halves is large, as artists began to make music to experiment with what they could do, rather than only to make money.

What's odd about this change is that it's hard to pinpoint exactly where it came from. Music historians have toiled for years trying to pinpoint patient zero of the Psychedelic Rock movement, with little success. It almost seems as though it simply came into being, with no one album or group to really set it off (although the release of Sgt. Pepper helped to really get the ball rolling). All that is really known is that 1966 is the year that it began to get recognizably odd. Bands like Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and especially The 13th Floor Elevators (who were one of the first bands to explicitly use "psychedelic" in the title of one of their albums) created a hard and yet whimsical blend of rock that was quite unlike what had come before it. And many of the already established bands followed suit, spending more time trying out different studio tricks to add into their music. Several of the most acclaimed albums of all time, such as Revolver and Pet Sounds, debuted that year after all. And of course, 1966 was the year that Frank Zappa was first shown to the musical world.

The seeds for Zappa's grand entrance to the musical antechamber had been sown several years previously. Fancying himself as a composer, he had already been working on a copious amount of studio work, both rock and more classical based, including a few movie soundtracks. After losing his first studio following a Police Raid, Zappa joined forces with the band The Soul Giants, led by Ray Collins, a friend of Zappa's, to replace their original guitarist. He very quickly took command, renaming them The Mothers, and teaching the band the numerous and radical songs that he had been storing for several years. This had both a negative and a positive consequence. Positive because it helped the band stand out and made the quickly blooming underground music scene turn their heads. Negative because their sound was considered too radical for most record companies and club owners, so it was hard for them to find steady work.

Luck would befall them when famed record producer Tom Wilson crossed their path. Having established himself by producing some of Bob Dylan's most acclaimed music, including "Like A Rolling Stone", Wilson had been dragged from his vacation by his new employer Verve Records to do some A&R work. At a small club in L.A. called The Whiskey A Go Go, he found The Mothers playing a song about the recent Watts Riots. Thinking they were a topical White Blues group, he offered them a record contract and gave them some studio time in March 1966. And that was when the can of worms was opened. It was very quickly discovered that The Mothers were no mere White Blues group, and were something much stranger indeed. Floored by the dark and murky sound of the song "Who Are The Brain Police", Tom Wilson quickly figured out that he had something very interesting on his hands, and he used his considerable influence with the label to essentially let the band do what they wanted (although Verve put their foot down on occasion). And from these recording sessions came The Mothers' (now named The Mothers Of Invention by demand of MGM) debut album, Freak Out.

Even when taking into account the rise of Psychedelia that was 1966, Freak Out sticks out like a sore thumb. It was the first debut album in rock music history to be a double LP (a testament to Wilson's lean on the label, as without it, this would never have been allowed), and one of the first albums that could be interpreted as having a coherent narrative. Its sound dabbled in Doo-Wop, Psych Rock, Avant-Garde, and Musique Concrete concepts, some of which many fellow innovative bands and musicians of the time wouldn't go near even at their most wild. Despite the more modern sound that the band showed several times on the record, the Doo-Wop influence was ironically the most strange by that point, since the genre was considered passe and yesteryear. And yet The Mothers' up to date playing and experimentation still made these influences sound fresh and new.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this record, and one which has aged perhaps the best in places, is the lyrics. Although some of the songs were Zappa airing out some of some older songs, like "Anyway The Wind Blows" and "How Could I Be Such A Fool", both of which were fairly conventional love ballads, even these are filled with spite and sarcasm, with "I'm Not Satisfied" having the narrator contemplating suicide after falling down on his luck. And that's not even getting into the political tracks.

"Who Are The Brain Police", which surprised everyone at the studio when it was recorded due to how out of left field it is, is a dark and rumbling number about Thought Police, a concept originally from George Orwell's book 1984. Its sound is indicative of how, according to Zappa, a voice in his head told him to write it, and it includes a sudden explosion of  screaming, crashing of drums, and a mantra of several people feeling like they're about to die. People have called this song one of the most disturbing of the 1960s, and it's easy to see why. "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" opens the album, and is considered on of Zappa's greatest album openers. It's strong opening chord and rough guitar tone (at least in a time before Hendrix) give it a biting touch. The lyrics deal with the American Education System, essentially going over how, from Zappa's perspective, it's designed to mold children into obedient citizens that act just like the system wants you to. Such blunt commentary was almost unheard of in recorded music by then, due to how hard record companies would suppress such opinions to make sure records sold well.

And then there's "Trouble Every Day". Ask any Zappa fan and the majority of them will name this song as the album's absolute best. This was the topical White Blues number that got the band their record deal, and they're clearly pulling no punches with it. Simply put, it's Frank Zappa's perspective of the Watts Riots from 1965, which were very racially driven. Thusly, he discusses how pointless and hypocritical the whole business is, with both sides blaming the other, and how much of a leech the media is by leaping to publicize tragedies, whilst the average American just sits and watches the chaos from their TV Screen. All while a chugging Harmonica fills the air with an almost revolutionary vibe. What makes the song stand out so much is how relevant it still is. All the issues it laid out are still largely at play, and it almost feels like it could've been written today. People like to talk about bands and artists sounding forward thinking or ahead of their time, but "Trouble Every Day" isn't ahead of its time. It's outside of time. It's continues to be relevant since it came out and it will likely remain so for a very long time.

And of course, we can't have a review of Freak Out! without touching on the Sound Collage bonanza that fills the second half of the record. Evidently this was Zappa proving that he could do more than play his guitar, as well as to prove to the more sophisticated music crowd that he was on their level. The biggest example of this sound if "The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet", the longest song on the album, and for many people, the least listenable. It lacks a definitive rhythm, and mostly consists of shrieks, whoops, moans and yelling, all the while a drum kit plods along and oscillators bleep and bloop all over the place. What Zappa did to create this tracks was to bring a bunch of acquaintances from the Sunset Strip, and $500 worth of percussion equipment, into the studio. He then had them make a variety of different sounds, some vocalizations, some random smashings on the equipment, which were then edited together to produce the final piece. As Zappa put it, it's the sound of a bunch of outsiders freaking out (basically getting together and having some general fun, and not tripping on drugs, which Zappa was staunchly against), which is where the album title comes from. An interesting thing to note is that the version of the composition on the album is in fact just the rhythm track for a far more complex piece. As MGM had already blown $20,000 on the album, a massive amount in those days, they pulled the plug before it could be completed, as well as removing any lyrics from the record that could be interpreted as drug related. Even though the track is unfinished, one must remember that it sounded like nothing anyone in the rock scene had heard at the time, and it helped to mark the point where musicians would start experimenting just to see what sounds they were capable of creating.

Although the album flopped when it came out, mostly due to a nearly nonexistent ad campaign since MGM had blown the majority of the budget on the recording of the album, it immediately made The Mothers Of Invention darlings in the Underground scene. Many big name musicians had a copy of it and were floored by its innovative sound. One of these being The Beatles, who used the album as a major inspiration whilst making Sgt. Pepper. The sheer cultural impact that album has had on the world has indirectly made Freak Out one of Frank Zappa's most influential, and it opened the floodgates for the rest of his amazing career, spanning dozens of albums, hundreds of live shows, and an wild outlook on life that he made sure everyone knew about. Zappa was definitely one unique guy.

You can buy the album at Zappa's website: https://www.zappa.com/music/freak-out

Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends [REVIEW]

The black sheep of the Led Zeppelin fan-base. Quite possibly the most hated album ever released.
The critics hated it. The public despised it. Most of the people who played on it disowned it. Lists of the worst albums of all time rank it highly, if not right on  top. Most everybody seems to be in agreement: Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends is a terrible album that is a disservice to everyone involved.

Before we can deduce if it really deserves this massive derision, let’s discuss who David Sutch is. He is definitely a colorful character. Claiming to be a legitimate duke, he formed the Official Monster Raving Loony Party in the '80s and holds the record for the most unsuccessful attempts to enter into parliament. In the early 60s he gained a reputation as being one the earliest examples of a “Shock Rocker”. His singles from this period discussed macabre topics about monsters and murderers. His stage shows even involved him dressing up as Jack the Ripper and exiting out of a coffin (as the occult band Coven would do towards the end of the decade) at the start of the set. The BBC even banned his single “Jack the Ripper” from playing on the radio for being too scary. Times were different.

But at the end of the day, David Sutch, or Screaming Lord Sutch as he adopted for his singles, was evidently a novelty act. And very few novelty acts get an album deal, even back in those days. Even so, Atlantic decided to give him a chance at a full LP in 1969. Fearful that he would be unable to carry a whole album by himself, Sutch called up several musicians that he was matey with, including Jimmy Page and John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, Noel Redding of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Nicky Hopkins, who had already sustained credibility with his work with The Rolling Stones. With these musicians backing him up, surely their star power alone would launch him into stardom. Which it technically did, but definitely not in the way that he’d intended.

One of the many criticisms thrown at the album is that the musicians really don’t sound like they care about the project and are simply going through the motions to get it over with and take their payment. The main reasoning for this, or so it seems from Jimmy Page’s testimony after the fact, is that most of the players assumed that they were only recording demo quality jams that were done for a laugh, and weren’t going to be released in that state. Thus, they didn’t really bother playing in a polished way. Several players were reportedly appalled to hear their performances on the record, and quickly made sure to wash their hands of the whole business to save face. The album’s packaging certainly didn’t help matters, as it proudly displayed the celebrity guests on the front cover. Sutch was only credited in the title as “Lord Sutch”, and in the credits on the back as his full name. This was evidently a ploy to get more people to buy the record, as most of these star musicians only play on a handful of tracks, and almost never overlap on any of them.

Although the lyrics are often lambasted as well for being simple and overly cheesy, the biggest complaint that pretty much everyone has when they listen to the album is Lord Sutch himself. Simply put, he mostly sings in a hoarse, often off key, yell. This is especially grating on the album’s opener “Wailing Sounds”, and the Jeff Beck-backed number “Gutty Guitar”, which can drive a lot of new listeners off before they’ve heard the rest of the record. Whilst this criticism can be justified, as Sutch definitely had quite a limited vocal range, and was clearly trying for more than what he was capable of, his performance is not too dissimilar to the singing of well respected singers like Iggy Pop and Mick Jagger. This does begs the question, however, of why people seem so hostile to Sutch’s singing when the latter examples are ranked among the best vocalists of all time.

At the end of the day, the most likely reason why the album flopped as hard as it did is because Jimmy Page and John Bonham were on it. In 1969, Led Zeppelin was probably the band that critics hated the most, since their loud sound and penchant for noodling was considered by many reviewers to be indulgent and pretentious. As such, it  would make sense that they’d want to lambaste any project that they were even  associated with. The Rolling Stone review of the album called it “absolutely terrible” and claimed that the musicians sounded “like a fouled parody of themselves”. This was likely the catalyst that coloured people’s opinion of the record forever, as it caused the album to halt at number 84 on the Billboard Pop Albums Chart (the shockingly patriotic Union Jack car on the front cover ,which even gets a song named after it, likely didn’t help matters in the American market). The mess also irreparably destroyed Lord Sutch’s reputation, especially with his musician friends, who most likely cut ties with him. He would return in 1972 with a live album, but only Noel Redding would reappear from the earlier line-up, and Sutch would mostly concentrate on his political career from then on, until his death in 1999.

Now that we’ve discussed what’s wrong with Lord Sutch & Heavy Friends, let’s go over some of its merits. And yes, there are some genuine ones.

For its loose and unpolished sound, there’s no denying that it is a very raw sort of rock & roll. A rock & roll that doesn’t care if it sounds quite right. A rock & roll that is being played purely for the heck of it. The musicians may have hated the record for showing them performing at a level they wouldn’t want people to hear, but it has the advantage of showing them just having some stupid fun with the blues. As Jimmy Page would put it: “I just went down to have a laugh, playing some old rock 'n' roll, a bit of a send-up. The whole joke sort of reversed itself and became ugly.”

Plus, although several of the tracks toe the line of being a bit too loose and unkempt for their own good, especially in terms of songwriting, it never quite dips to the level of completely unlistenable. The best tracks by far are the ones where Page plays guitar, as he injects some of the tricks that he had already showcased with Led Zeppelin. In fact, there is one jewel in amongst the rough, in the form of “Flashing Lights”, the third song on the record. The guitar work on this track (done by Page, naturally) is among the tightest on the record, with a strong use of the Wah-Wah pedal, which helps it chug along at a consistent pace. Sutch also manages to sing in a considerably more tolerable way than the rest of the record, alternating between different audio effects and panning as he works through the lyrics. It’s easily the most of-its-time sounding song on the LP, whereas a lot of the other songs sound a lot rock from the early 60s, which was mostly passé by 1969. This probably contributed to the album’s dislike to some degree, with “Cause I Love You” being a particularly evident offender of its outdated style to the average music listener.

In short, Lord Sutch & Heavy Friends is definitely flawed, and Sutch clearly didn’t quite have the talent for an entire album. But its role as “Worst Album of All Time” is wholly undeserved, as the talent of the guest musicians is able to just about shine through. Even if it’s buried somewhat by the admittedly unprofessional atmosphere. Still, if you enjoy listening to musicians in a more casual atmosphere, then you’d probably get a kick out of several the selections. Otherwise, feel free to just take “Flashing Lights” and leave the rest.



You can find the album here: https://www.discogs.com/Lord-Sutch-And-Heavy-Friends-Lord-Sutch-And-Heavy-Friends/master/192561

Josh's Blair Witch Mix [REVIEW]

(Please note, this is a slightly rewritten cross-post from my old movie review blog. Since this is about an album, I figured it would also fit here well enough. Some extra parts and thoughts have been added in, since the original review was quite old and not too great.)

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So, if you were around when The Blair Witch Project came out in 1999, you'll likely be aware of the
huge amount of tie-in material that went with it. These include a selection of mockumentaries, the movie's website, and the endless advertising campaigns that aimed to convince the average viewer that the movie was real footage of an actual disappearance. And that's not even getting started on the merch that Artisan Entertainment cranked out to cash in. One such piece of tie in media was the movie soundtrack, which went by the name: The Blair Witch Project: Josh's Blair Witch Mix.

If you've watched the movie and didn't know it had a soundtrack, then you're probably confused why it even exists. The only song in the entire thing is the end credits score by Antonio Cora, and that's less of a song and more of an ambient background noise. Hardly marketable on its own. So where did the other 11 tracks come from? Do they have any relation to the movie at all? Is this just an excuse to sell a compilation of unrelated music by a greedy distribution company?

Well, yes, but it is in fact linked to the film in more ways than merely sharing its name. According to the liner notes, the contents of the Disc were originally on a mixtape found in the car of Joshua Leonard, one of the students that went missing in the film, which was recompiled for the CD. Obviously, this is a bit of a stretch, even by TBWP's standards, but it's not entirely implausible. Thankfully the choices of music is not just a collection of popular music from 1994, when the movie is set. This would've been the obvious choice had the company not cared in the slightest. Instead, a selection of murkier picks were chosen, including Industrial, Post Punk, and Gothic Rock, many of which are rather obscure and the average listener would not recognize. It's fairly believable that a college student in the 90s would have music like this on their mixtape. This helps make the album stand out more from other soundtrack albums, which are usually just collections of well known material. This presentation is fairly similar to the concept for the soundtracks to the Guardians Of The Galaxy movies, which are established to be mixtapes owned by the film's protagonist, Peter Quill.

Also included is the previously mentioned end credits score by Antonio Cora, which makes sense as it actually did appear in the film. A deleted scene from the film appears in the enhanced section of the CD, likely cut due to a plane flying overhead. On a couple of tracks as well, sound clips from the film are tacked onto the start, probably to remind the listener the movie the album was based off. This does break the immersion of it being the original mixtape, as it seems weird to add these sound bytes in like it's The Beavis & Butthead Experience, but it thankfully doesn't ruin the tracks themselves.

As promotional material for The Blair Witch Project goes, you can definitely go way worse than this (the EIGHT young adult novels were probably pushing it a tad). This, at the very least, is able to tie into the film without being stretched too hard, and the music choices are pretty good. Plus, it helped make the story of the movie feel slightly more real, coupled with the other tie-in material. Then again, nowadays this kind of advertising campaign isn't really effective, but eh, what can you do.

You can buy the album here: https://www.discogs.com/Various-The-Blair-Witch-Project-Joshs-Blair-Witch-Mix/release/835030

A special mix of an included Public Image LTD song ("The Order Of Death") was also released as a single, but not included in that form on the main album, the original is on there. If you'd also like the single mix, it's available here: https://www.discogs.com/Public-Image-Ltd-The-Order-Of-Death-The-Blair-Witch-Mix/release/542326

Trailer for the movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x9iMtfPZA8