Flying Saucers Rock & Roll: The Cosmic Genius of Sam Philips (CMF Publishing)

Sam and Elvis (Elvis Info Network)

Virtually everyone knows the name of Sam Philips, the guy who discovered Elvis Presley and made people like Johnny Cash famous.  He was the owner and producer of Sun Records and his own Philips Record label as well.  This is a pretty short pictorial book telling the man’s story by his son Knox Philips and the curator of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Peter Guralnick. It was released in conjunction with an ongoing exhibition on Sam Philips in Nashville. Lots of cool pictures and short stories about how he got into music (via radio). Great high quality pictures of family, the artists he helped break out. Tells a nice story of how he really tried to help black artists and he felt a bit bad about only recording white artists when things started to get big with Elvis, Johnny, Jerry Lee, and others.  He comes across as quite a cool and amazing person. He had a very unique approach as a producer at this time as he was not interested in the perfection but capturing the moment, the passion of the artist, that artist’s unique personality and he was good at it. If you are curious about the history of Sam and Sun records this is a very good and short book (65 pages).. Check it out. Not sure where it is available in Europe.

http://www.countrymusichalloffame.org

Freakout in the Fjord- Trondheim, Norway Nov 17th, 2017

Wow.. it took 10 years to get ØSC back to play in Norway.  I flew in from Copenhagen, Hasse from Narvik, Tim from CPH, Jonathan from Stockholm and Sabine from Hamburg.  Vemund from BMC will play guitar and Lars (SEID) will play synths, as he did 10 years ago when we played Fru Lundgren!

This will be a gig with Red Mountains (Local stoner doom) and Black Moon Circle. Venue is very cool. Weather has been all over the place today from heavy wet snow to sunny but all cold and soon it will be dark again. It is winter in Norway!!!

Red Mountains are on at 21, ØSC about 22 and BMC at 23:30. 

The day was not as we had expected after Jonathan sent an SMS saying his flight from Stockholm was cancelled and he would arrive later. He was flown to Bergen and then stuck there for 6 hrs. His next flight from there was cancelled and then it was not until 21:15 that he could get a flight and then that was an hour late so he missed the ØSC concert completely. Fuck..  Anyway…. Soundchecks went fine, Sabine and Tim found the place about the time BMC had finished soundcheck. I took them to see their apartment and take the rest of the bedding and then we went to go eat at RAMP, a cool place near the venue. Burger place. Hasse showed up while we were eating there. The Red Mountain guys and all the sound crew also ate there. Good food. 330kr for Tim, Sabine (we shared a burger) and me with water.

Red Mountains started at 21. Very nice people and good players. They played for about 50 people and a good set of songs from their two albums.  They had one track that they jammed out with a great bluesy solo. We all thought this was very cool and the audience gave a good response as well. They need to do that 2-3 times in their set.  Good job guys.

ØSC (foto by Sabine)

Øresund Space Collective, our set up was pretty fast and since Jonathan was not there, so we got Troels (Dog and Sky, other bands..) to play guitar with us. We called Snah from Motorpsycho as he really wanted to come out and jam with BMC but he just arrived back today from 6 weeks on tour, so I did not expect he would be able to make it. Anyway, our set started very spacey and then Tim and Hasse got the look and decided it was time to kick up the energy level and it started!!!  The grooves had this special, intensity and edge to the music and Vemund really found himself eventually and was able to let loose. Not as many guitar solos as expected but just a lot of spacey freaky energy and a true freakout in the Fjord! The set was about 55mins. I really wanted to play one more jam but I knew it would be difficult to keep it to 10mins or less so we just stopped. People dug the show.

Black Moon Circle, we started just about 23:30, and the audience was at its peak, about 100 people in the room. I felt like we had a bit of a rough start, their were a couple of false starts or mistakes on the vocals at the start, but musically we were great and interesting and I felt like I made pretty cool layers of sound.  Jonathan arrived at the end of Plains and could have come in on Lunar Rocket but waited until Warp Speed. He had been listening to the track so he could play with the band and that worked amazing. That was probably 35mins long tonight with super cool parts. I made some really heavy wind at the beginning for the first part.  I think we played 75mins, 3 songs…

Black Moon Circle (Foto by Sabine)

Their was a big party after the gig and everyone was in a good mood. The old drummer from BMC, Peran, he was impressed with the gig and thought Simon did a great job.  People were smoking a lot in the backstage and it was too smokey for me but it was the best place to hang out.  Party went on until about 0200. Everyone agreed this was a blast and there will be another Freak out in the Fjord next year for sure..

Thanks to all the great sound people, the people who filmed the whole event on several cameras and Magnus for making the multitrack!! I think you will get to see this one on you tube at some point..

Uffe Lorenzen- Galmandsværk (Bad Afro Records AFROCD052)

Uffe (Lorenzo Woodrose for most people) has created his first solo album. Last winter he spent 10 weeks on the island of Gomera off the coast of Africa. He rented a small apartment and spent time with his guitar, recorder and his mind. While Uffe wrote all the songs, he is complimented by a large group of folks who compliment his songs with synth, flute, sitar, Jews harp, tabla, hurdy gurdy, vibraphone, violin, etc… For those not understanding Danish, the lyrical content will be difficult. The title translates to something like Acts of Madness. Uffe plays acoustic 6 or 12 string guitar on most tracks. The record starts off with Dansker, a song about being Danish. There is a very cool psychedelic vibe (especially the vocals) on this, retro, yet modern song. Rimets Tyranni is a musically happier despite the darker lyrical theme. Ridset Plade is complimented with a very 60s organ has this sort of Moody Blues like feeling at times despite the heavy guitar riff. Flippertøs (see the video link below) is a cool hippie track with hand drums, acoustic guitar and a nice flute. På Kanten af Verden (On the edge of the World) has a sort of Beatles vibe due to the way the song is constructed and the sitar and psychedelic freakout after 4mins! Great track. Sang om Merværdi starts off side B with a riff that reminds me of Spids Nøgenhat but the vocals are more forceful and frantic in this quite special song with lots of cool stuff going on (Jews harp). Ny By (New City) changes the vibe totally with a very relaxed track with piano, cool freaky vibraphone, and other hidden layers. Min Skygge (My Shadow) is a more stripped down song with Uffe his guitar, violin and little more. Beautiful track. Høj som et Højhus (High like a high Rise) starts with some backwards voice and then the strummed guitar kicks in as well as a mellotron. This is quite a psychedelic track. Blues for Havet (Blues for the Sea) closes the record with a drone, didgeridoo and the sound of the sea before the guitar line starts and Uffe sings. One of my favorite songs on the record. I just floated away..

This is a great record that mixes all of Uffe’s previous bands into something new (but you can still hear the bits of Dragontears, Spids Nøgenhat, On Trial). You cannot escape the shadow of what you have made before but you can make it look different. Great job Uffe.  The record is officially released on Nov 10^th, 2017. First pressing is 1000 copies on CD and black vinyl.

Gin Lady- Electric Earth (Bilocation Records)

This is the Swedish bands, 4^th record. I had only heard the last one and really liked it but they really hit the ball out of the park on this one! What a fucking great record!! I just got this one in and my wife and I are spinning it everyday! Fantastic vocals, great songs and playing. The songs take me back to the early 70s… Flower People starts things off with a mid paced strumming guitar track with some great vocals, nice lyrics and groove. A very happy song. I’m your Friend sounds a lot like an Allman Brothers song and features acoustic guitar and a southern rock feel. It even features some pedal steel or slide at the end mixed with a few nature sounds by New Mountain. Badger Boogie has some boogie in it in a slow groove like the Rolling Stones. The things you used to do could be one of the mellow early Humble Pie tracks. Wow.. Mercy is an acoustic track that is a bit like Blackberry Smoke in a way. Another great track. Side B starts off with my favorite track on the record, Brothers of the Canyon. Again reminds me of Doobie Brothers or Marshall Tucker band and the bands jam this one out a bit. Rolling Thunder is a bit of Bob Dylan hidden in it’s sleeve. Water and Sunshine is a bit more rocking and keeps the good time rock and roll flowing. Wasted Years has that southern rock feel to it as well. Running no More ends the record in a laid back and mellow way with some mellotron. I agree with another reviewer, not real heavy, real progressive or really psychedelic but really fucking good! One of my fave records this year. Great job folks..

http://shop.bilocationrecords.com/ http://ginlady.bandcamp.com