Chocolate Ashes, Future Aorta

Chocolate Watch Band "In the Past"

Previously done by We the People (also good, so I'll close with that!).



Ashes "Dark on You Now"

Later (over)done by successor group Peanut Butter Conspiracy, but this version wins.



Future "Shape of Things to Come"

Number of good versions of this, including the more famous Max Frost, and the late sixties flavored Aorta (viz. next track).



Aorta "Strange"

One of the best late 60s from Chicagoland...call me "strange", but I like this better than the 45 version.



We the People "In the Past"

Surprisingly not all that far from the CWB version, just not as "ambient", really. So now we've come full circle. Ciao for now!

Blackfoot to Fenwyck

JD Blackfoot: Angel


A PASSING FANCY: I BELIEVE IN SUNSHINE


Family: Burlesque


ZERFAS: the piper


Fenwyck: Mindrocker

Three Bands, Five Tunes

Phantasia: Good Night, A Summer's Day, Lady And I


Shape Of The Rain: Yes


The Wizards From Kansas: She Rides With Witches

Let It Roll, Imaginatively (and give the drummer some)

George Harrison - Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)


John Lennon - Imagine


Ringo Starr - It don't come easy

HEM rabbit songs (selection of three)

Quoted as wanting to make a record "we could love the rest of our lives," Hem spent a year on this collection. The idea was to combine their love of traditional American music with the lushness of the occasional 18-piece orchestra, a good choice considering the sweet, crystalline quality of the vocal work by lead singer Sally Ellyson. Ellyson had never sung professionally before, but answered an ad in The Village Voice with a cassette of lullabies she'd recorded for a friend's child..... Her voice, untarnished, as it may have been by spending nights on end singing in smoky bars, was worth waiting for. Rabbit Songs' sound is lyrical, melodic, and pure. It was recorded in the old-fashioned, non-digital manner and that devotion to tradition is apparent in each song, whether in simple and sparse arrangements or full of strings and glockenspiel. The songs.....don't try to sound old -- they just have an effortlessly timeless appeal. ---Travis Drageset, AllMusic

Half Acre



Betting on Trains



All That I'm Good For

leave my station where i stood
to lay for a while with you
i got shadows snapping at my tail
who say i'm no damn good
but that's just halfway true
all that i'm good for is you

you know i play with all those strays
prowling outside your door
it's the scraps of love you throw my way
that have got me on all fours

 Songwriters: Messe Daniel R

Note: I would have picked "Stupid Mouth Shut" instead of "Betting on Trains" had the former been available for this. There's a video here (a little slow on the bufferring though).

Trip Shakespeare x 5

Today You Move


Pearle


Down My Block


Turtledove


Drummer Like Me


from AllMusic.com's review (by Gregory McIntosh) about Lulu:

"Trip Shakespeare unfortunately went unnoticed in their time and more unfortunately have remained in obscurity, but they were lucky enough to record in a time when major labels took greater chances with music and would more often indulge ambitious projects. Lulu is the group's defining set, a result of inspired and talented musicians with an expense account to afford their aspirations and enough sense to exploit it appropriately. Why then did this record go through the ringer almost completely unnoticed and why did the reviews the album received tend to be overly critical? Part of the answer has to do with the timing of its release. 1991 was the great embrasure of the grunge movement when Nirvana's Nevermind set the decade-long trend for the popular music charts. The release of a melodically complex and romantic pop masterpiece with lush vocals was entertained by neither the critics nor the masses, and no doubt A&M had lost much of the majesty they found in Trip Shakespeare when they were signed two years previous, which is a shame since Shakespeare's leader, Matt Wilson, was at the height of his poetic optimism and the melodic hooks he wrote with his brother Dan Wilson are complex, plentiful, and on par with the classics of pop music's innovation. John Munson's bass playing is superb throughout, most notably in "Today You Move," where his delicious and seductive work is given the spotlight of a tender solo complete with a second harmony bass track."

Promising Results

We are pleased to bringing promising findings from the Ministries of Primatology and Molecular Viniculture: