This week has been full of audio adventures, the highlight would probalby be the new CSN&Y album. There is only one surprise on this list and that is “bodies of divine infinite and eternal spirit. If the music isn’t your cup of tea you can probably agree that the bands name and the album name are interesting.

King Crimson – Islands

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Live At Fillmore East, 1969

Federale – Reverb & Seduction

Librarians With Hickeys – How To Make Friends By Telephone

bodies of divine infinite and eternal spirit – the great guitar of universal compassion

Peter, Paul, & Mary – The Very Best of Peter, Paul & Mary

The Orb & David Gilmour – Metallic Spheres In Colour

King Crimson – Islands

From Wikipedia:

“Islands is the fourth studio album by King Crimson, released on 3 December 1971 on the record label Island.  Islands is the only studio album to feature the 1971–1972 touring line-up of Robert Fripp, Mel Collins, Boz Burrell and Ian Wallace. This would be the last album before an entirely new group (except for Fripp) would record the trilogy of Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black and Red between 1973 and 1974. This is also the last album to feature the lyrics of co-founding member Peter Sinfield.

Musically, the album expands on the improvisational jazz leanings of King Crimson’s previous album, Lizard. It received a mixed response from critics and fans.” Norman also gives it a mixed response. I have tried to like this album, but it remains lukewarm and elusive.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Live At Fillmore East, 1969

Four Way Street is already on my deserted island playlist, and Déjà Vu is close behind, making ranking this album difficult. This was recorded shortly before Déjà Vu was released, and Four Way Street came the following year. The trio appears in this order: Live At Fillmore East in 1969, Déjà Vu in 1970 and Four Way Street in 1971.

I learned about Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSN&Y) in 1970 during a chance encounter in Montreal, Canada. I had a lengthy layover between flights, so I grabbed a cab to a nearby mall I knew had a record store. Déjà Vu was on the turntable, and I knew I had to buy that album. Fifty-four years later, I am still digging their music.

After just one listen, a highlight of Live At Fillmore East, 1969 is the 16 minutes of Down By The River. It’s incredible to hear these four musicians jam on four electric guitars. The closing song which follows Down By The River is Find The Cost of Freedom, and we hear four voices harmonizing. I am giving the album its second listen as I write this, and I love every second of it; these guys are next level.

I had my second go at Live At Fillmore East, 1969, and I must confess that it didn’t engage me like Four Way Street did. I’ve filed it in the library and will no doubt listen to it again. However, I didn’t have the rush of blood to my head that Déjà Vu or Four Way Street did. I remain hopefully optimistic until then.

Just for the record, I do not dislike Live At Fillmore East, 1969; it is a good album. It’s just not as good as Four Way Street. Live albums are a crap shoot at best. Everyone has an opinion on what the best live albums are. ‘Frampton Comes Alive!’ makes everyone’s best live albums list. Deep Purple ‘Made in Japan’ also shows up frequently; I think a lot is due to one song, Smoke On The Water. The Talking Heads’ amazing show, ‘Stop Making Sense,’ makes my list at number one, and Rolling Stone magazine puts it at eleven on their list. The Who, ‘Live at Leeds’ is a frequent flyer on these lists. Sunday at the Village Vanguard by Bill Evans would be on my list.

A few venues pop up on most lists of best live albums. Apollo Theater was in the Harlem district of New York City; it has been a significant venue for African American popular music. The list of musicians that graced its stage is enough to fill a book; several are written. Another important New York venue was The Fillmore East, dubbed the church of rock and roll due to the many great artists and penultimate shows it has hosted. Royal Albert Hall in England is a frequently used venue; it is a favourite of mine because I was privileged to see King Crimson play there. Budokan is a venue in Japan that has hosted some great live performances, including Bob Dylan and Cheap Trick. Birdland is the place to be if you want live jazz.

Live venues for Country and Western music usually default to The Grand Ole Opry, The Ryman or shows pulled from live radio performances, where The Opry and numerous stars got their start. The Carter Family and Hank Williams are just two highlights who started on the radio. According to the internet, Country and Western music seem to have one great live album, Waylon Jennings- Waylon Live! It shows up on list after list. Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison is usually a distant second place.

The list of great live performances and their venue could go on and on. There are numerous web pages with their best live performance lists, which could be a list of the best lists. Ultimate Classic Rock is a decent list, and Rolling Stone has covered the rock and roll world quite well. There are too many lists for live jazz albums because jazz seems to come alive when played outside the studio. I could get lost on Reddit reading everyone’s opinion of the best live performances. I suggest listening to live performances and recordings of live performances and making your own list; that is what I did.

Federale – Reverb & Seduction

These guys have a sound that sucked my right in and held me for the entire length of this album. That’s all, folks; I just thought I would mention them because I listened to this album and liked it. Thank you, Shauna.

Dark Waters’ video  https://youtu.be/bxdF2FzNf8U

‘Reverb & Seduction’ album order  https://pocp.co/reverb-and-seduction

Bandcamp  https://federalemusic.bandcamp.com/album/reverb-seduction

Spotify  https://open.spotify.com/album/6gzstULLTR1OEwhnWeWojh

‘Heaven Forgive Me’ video  https://youtu.be/uj7VLYutKgw

‘Advice From a Stranger’ video https://youtu.be/szTf8z5-y9c

‘No Strangers’ video  https://youtu.be/RsiftDMjDNg

‘The Worst Thing I Ever Did Was Ever Loving You’ feat. Jenny Don’t https://youtu.be/pryjJsH_dvI 

Tour tickets https://www.songkick.com/artists/584775-federale

‘Reverb & Seduction’ is out now on CD and limited edition vinyl, as well as digitally everywhere, including Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal and Bandcamp.

Shameless Promotion PR at contact@shamelesspromotionpr.com

Librarians With Hickeys – How To Make Friends By Telephone

Dang it all! Double dang it! I listened to this album over and over, and twice yesterday. I was working on a little modelling project and had this album on repeat, and I listened to it with intention. I liked it but still have difficulty putting a label on the Librarians With Hickeys. They bring back a warm fuzzy feeling of the heady days of summer as teenagers in the sixties and listening to pop music on the radio as we cruised town. They have good lyrics with lots of the usual suspects: love found, love enjoyed, and love lost and telephones. True to the album name, How To Make Friends By Telephone, there are plenty of references to telephones that naturally brought to mind some songs that I know with telephone as either the title or subject matter of songs. And so off I went, first from memory and then assisted by the Discogs search engine, limited to my music collection. Undoubtedly, the list would be endless outside of this search.

The Carter Family – No Telephone In Heaven

Tom Waits – Telephone Call From Istanbul

ELO -Telephone Line

Jim Croce – Operator (That’s Not The Way It Feels)

Bob Dylan & The Band – Long Distance Operator

Dr. Hook And The Medicine Show – Sylvia’s Mother

Arcade Fire – Cars and Telephones

Back to the Librarians after that rabbit hole, I have enjoyed listening to their music and feel very strongly that I may return to them.

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bodies of divine infinite and eternal spirit – the great guitar of universal compassion

This album is new to me. I was strolling around the internet one night when inspecting the insides of my eyelids, and it wasn’t inducing sleep. I started scrolling through Apple Music for music to fall asleep with and found bodies of divine infinite and eternal spirit. They are not the best band to fall asleep listening to, but I was glad to find them. I knew absolutely nothing about bodies… so I turned my sleeplessness into a quest for knowledge about them. I found a bit of info on Bandcamp: https://b-odies.bandcamp.com/album/the-great-guitar-of-universal-compassion

And a bit more on 

I found out on that sleepless night that bodies… have a significant back catalogue that I will have to spend some time exploring. For the moment, I will limit my time to their newest adventure, the great guitar of universal compassion.

This is an exciting album from bodies… It travels through the realms of improv, but they don’t sound like a jam band. They also have a psychedelic feel, but I would not call them a psychedelic band. Discogs label their album “all the songs i know about fire” as rock. bodies… bodies are experimental and use musique concrète elements, whether from sample sources outside of the use of musical instruments or through the manipulation of those instruments sounds by various means, including the pedal board.

This is not music for everyone, but it has been excellent music for me. They didn’t put me to sleep but sent me on a quest to listen to more of their music. It has been a grand quest rewarded by hours of exciting music that pushed my music boundaries into new pathways.