20 MORE EXPLOSIVE FANTASTIC ROCKIN' MEGA SMASH HIT EXPLOSIONS!

 

Parody/homage to K-Tel Records compilations. Pravda's sequel to their first compilation of K-Tel cover songs has, like its predecessor, as many hits as misses. To be sure, some of the songs weren't all that great to begin with -- how could any artist hope to transform Donny and Marie Osmond's "A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock & Roll" into something more substantial? Well, John Wesley Harding and Kelly Hogan give it a shot, but there's only so much they can do (including changing a few of the lyrics). The stronger numbers, however -- particularly those that have been covered with some degree of respect -- seem to fare the best.

The Posies' "O-o-h Child" (the Five Stairsteps), for instance, is quite faithful to the original. If a bit less soulful, it still glows with the Beatle-esque harmonies that have long distinguished the careers of Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow.

The Smithereens' take on Ringo Starr's "It Don't Come Easy" is another good fit between song and performer. Neither cover is better than the original, but no matter.

                                                                                                              On the other end of the spectrum, the Dayglo Abortions cover Barry Manilow's "I Write the Songs" in an off-hand (and off-key) punk rock style that adds little to the mawkish original. 

Most of the rest of the contributions, from the likes of 

King Missile, 

                                                                                                   the Fastbacks,

 

etc., fall between the two extremes. ~ Kathleen C. Fennessy 

 

Various – 20 More Explosive Fantastic Rockin' Mega Smash Hit Explosions!
Label:    Pravda Records – PR6342
Format:    CD, Album, Compilation
Country:    US
Released:    1992
Genre:    Rock
Style:    Alternative Rock, Indie Rock

Tracklist

1.  Poi Dog Pondering With Two Nice Girls – Rock Your Baby    3:40
2.  John Wesley Harding And Kelly Hogan – A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock 'N' Roll    2:35
3.  The Posies – O-o-h Child    3:32
4.  Dash Rip Rock – The Rapper    2:48
5.  King Missile – Still The One    3:30
6.  Uncle Tupelo – Movin' On  3:29
7.  Head Candy – Maggie May    4:54
8.  J. Levine – Magic    2:43
9.  Milo Binder – Dancing Queen    3:07
10.  Dayglo Abortions – I Write The Songs    3:57
11.  The Smithereens – It Don't Come Easy    3:11
12.  Javelin Boot – Knowing Me, Knowing You    3:59
13.  Frampton Brothers – Indiana Wants Me    3:55
14.  Trip Shakespeare – Go All The Way    3:20
15.  Enormous Richard – Music Box Dancer    2:08
16.  Fastbacks – Rocket Man    4:02
17.  Phantom Helmsmen – Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves    3:22
18.  The Squirrels – Seasons In The Sun / Hustle    3:19
19.  Goober & The Peas – MacArthur Park    4:54
20.  Coal Porters – Hot Child In The City    3:17
21.  Siegler – Brother Louie    4:14

THE FLY-RITE BOYS - BIG SANDY PRESENTS THE FLY-RITE BOYS

 Big Sandy Presents The Fly-Rite Boys

This was the classic lineup: 

(Minus BIG SANDY on vocals/guitar)

ASHLEY KINGMAN electric guitar,

A native of London, Ashley naturally gravitated to the spot where his talents are appreciated most - namely as lead guitarist in the Fly-Rites.  In his spare moments, this good natured picker treats himself to a healthy dose of beach recreation and motorcycle mechanics.

LEE JEFFRIESS steel,

Here's a guy that just likes to play the steel guitar...once he steps off that big yellow touring bus, he can be found relaxing in his Southern California home with his beautiful wife and daughter.  Interests include world history and magnetism.

WALLY HERSOM upright bass,

Wally, the 6 foot 3 inch veteran Fly-Rite Boy, can't think of anything he enjoys more than his old bass fiddle...except, of course, when it comes to lemon pie, backgammon, Erle Stanley Gardner, and the color green...

BOBBY TRIMBLE drums,

Drummer Bobby Trimble lives and breathes rhythm...a stop by the Trimble homestead would surely find him amidst his vast 78 rpm record collection, watching Gene Krupa soundies, or reading comic books.  Bobby also loves to ski. 

w/ the addition of 

  CARL "SONNY" LELAND piano,

"Sonny," the outfit's newest recruit, comes from Southhampton, England by way of New Orleans.  This world-renowned boogie-woogie piano man also finds time to dabble in his favorite interests, occult literature and vegetarianism.

January 18th, 1998 at Lenora's Ghost Tavern in the small town of Independence, OR.

Big Sandy's backup band steps out on their own and delivers its first solo album consisting of mostly a set of  band instrumental originals, primarily showcasing their considerable instrumental chops, with a few stray vocals like "Booze Party" (sung by bassist Wally Hersom) 

and "Rosetta" (sung by piano man  Carl "Sonny" Leyland).

Standout tracks are guitarist Ashley Kingman's "Straight-8 Boogie," Carl "Sonny" Leyland's turn on the jazz-pop standard "Rosetta," "Wizard's Dust", a hillbilly boogie piano workout, while steel man Lee Jeffriess' "Flyin' Rite" has a nice mid-tempo Western swing jive to it, and the atmospheric "Laguna Sunset" for lovers of true Western swing honky tonk with a slight jazz edge, sounding like it was cut over 50 years ago, but "Hit and Run" swings in full force with a nice drum workout by Bobby Trimble, channeling Gene Krupa) and "Rhapsody in Violet" does a nice job of bringing back those Hawaiian slack-key favorite romantic sounds of the 50's-60's. "Booze Party" sounds like a raucous party tune sure to fill the dance floor at any Big Sandy And The Fly-Rite Boys live affair. "Minor Struggle" is another nice jazzy ivory number, reminiscent of "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby".

 You don't have to ever have heard of Big Sandy or be a fan of the band to enjoy the fine Western swing and jazz instrumental numbers on display here. If you like those instrumental vinyl records of the 60's or have any interest in Western Swing or Jazz, here's your album. You'll enjoy the honey elixir dripping from your Hi-Fi stereo system.  

 

Liner notes on the back of the album: 

"Speaking as the one who generally gets to do all the talkin', I couldn't be more proud to step aside and present the first real "solo" album by the one and only Fly-Rite Boys.

Over the years, we've recorded many albums and logged a lot of miles playing clubs, fairs and theatres all over the world...and from show to show, the band never fails to entertain and always makes me look good in the bargain...

Even so, the boys haven't really had the chance to step into the spotlight on their own...so, when the folks at High Tone suggested the Boys cut a record, they were more than ready to show their stuff.

What they've come up with is sure to please fans of all types of music.  From swing to country and hillbilly boogie to jazz, the Fly-Rite Boys have a flair for getting it hot and getting it right.

Besides top-notch instrumentals, you'll also be treated to a few rare vocal numbers from Carl "Sonny" Leyland, the man who handles the 88 keys...Wally Hersom, bass fiddle expert, weighs in with his show stopper "Booze Party," while Bobby Trimble lays down the beat, Ashley Kingman takes off on lead guitar and Lee Jeffries operates his world-famous steel guitar.

As glad as I am to have them working with me, I get a real kick out of stepping back and just enjoying the music on this, the first waxing all by their lonesome.

It's my sincere hope that you dig the fervid rhythms and melodious articulation included herein." 

                                                                                                            

-- Big Sandy  

"Ultimately, the Fly-Rite Boys have taken a few more steps in the direction of jazz; they are no longer just a rockabilly band, and hardly a Western swing band either. Their performances here are fine, tasteful and precise, rather than wild and loose." -- No Depression

The Fly-Rite Boys – Big Sandy Presents The Fly-Rite Boys
Label:  Hightone Records – HCD 8090
Format:  CD, Album
Country:  US
Released:  1998
Genre:  Rock, Folk, World, & Country
Style:  Rock & Roll, Rockabilly, Country

Tracklist

1.  Straight-8 Boogie    3:09
2.  Rosetta    4:24
3.  Mary's Mood    4:28
4.  Wizard's Dust    2:52
5.  Flyin' Rite    3:11
6.  Laguna Sunset    3:41
7.  Hit And Run    2:48
8.  Rhapsody In Violet    4:04
9.  D. Of L. Boogie    2:58
10.  "What's Buzzin', Cuzzin?"    3:09
11.  Booze Party    2:05
12.  Minor Struggle    4:05

ANI DIFRANCO - NOT A PRETTY GIRL

 Ani Difranco - Not A Pretty Girl

Angela Maria "Ani" DiFranco (born September 23, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter, who has released more than 20 albums on her own record label, Righteous Babe Records. At 25 years-old an independent businesswoman, giving her significant creative freedom and creative control over everything including her records, independent distribution in US and Canada, her merchandise, her tours selling out venues coast to coast and making headlines.

DiFranco's music has been classified as folk rock and alternative rock, although it has additional influences from punk, funk, hip hop and jazz.  

She's a very bold unabashed singer/songwriter who writes lyrics no one else dares to produce. (An advantage of being the CEO of her own music company)

Her album, Not a Pretty Girl is the sixth studio album, released July 18, 1995.  The album extended the folk singer's early formula of acoustic guitar and drums, accompanied by percussionist/vocalist Andy Stochansky.  "On Not A Pretty Girl, I wanted to really scale down sound to its essence," Ani Says.

Some of the highlights and a few expected topics Ani takes on, on the Not A Pretty Girl album, include "Tiptoe", a spoken word piece about abortion; "Cradle And All", a beautiful, gut-wrenching ballad concerning a rough day in the life of a city girl who's got last night's underwear in her back pocket as she rides home on the subway, depicting a sure sign of the morning after. The album features some of her most memorable songs, like "Sorry I Am"; "Light Of Some Kind", repenting for being unfaithful, sung with heartfelt, bang-it-up umph; "The Million You Never Made", a hardcore kiss-off to the music industry, convincing why she isn't on a major label; "32 Flavors"; "Crime for Crime", a song about capital punishment.

DiFranco's gifts as a songwriter, singer, and musician, showcase imagery that is urban and gritty. The album's title track "Not A Pretty Girl", is a classic feminist song with lyrics like “I am not a pretty girl/ That is not what I do”, and the classic rebuttal to all those macho men who want to save the wounded bird being more than a beautiful woman and refusing to play the socially acceptable role of a damsel in need of rescue, with a line like "Don't you think every kitten figures out how to get down whether or not you ever show up." She addresses the classic misconception of a strong woman being perceived as an "angry woman" with the lyrics, 

"I am not an angry girl but it seems like I've got everyone fooled
every time i say something they find hard to hear
they chalk it up to my anger
and never to their own fear"

.....because people often fear what they don't understand and men are often threatened by a strong woman! 

Ani DiFranco – Not A Pretty Girl
Label:  Righteous Babe Records – RBR007-D
Format:  CD, Album
Country:  US
Released:  1995
Genre:  Rock
Style:  Folk Rock

Tracklist

1.  Worthy  4:31
2.  Tiptoe  0:36
3.  Cradle And All  4:18
4.  Shy  4:43
5.  Sorry I Am  4:45
6.  Light Of Some Kind  4:07
7.  Not A Pretty Girl  3:55
8.  The Million You Never Made  4:18
9.  Hour Follows Hour  6:01
10.  32 Flavors  6:07
11.  Asking Too Much  2:55
12.  This Bouquet  2:28
13.  Crime For Crime  5:42
14.  Coming Up  2:29

15.  Tiptoe (Bloopers)

BIG MUFF - MUSIC FROM THE AURAL EXCITER

 Big Muff - Music From The Aural Exciter

Big Muff, (which he took from the name of an old classic Electro-Harmonix guitar distortion pedal), is the pseudonym used by Grammy Award winning songwriter Itaal Shur.

Shur (who was raised mostly in Seattle and Connecticut, before relocating to Manhattan) inherited his love of music from his father, Bonia Shur, who was a noted composer of Israeli and Jewish music and director of Liturgic Arts at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, and originally from Russia via Israel, and his mother, Fanchon Wechsler Shur, born in Chicago, Illinois, a former dancer and a choreographer. 

Shortly after moving to N.Y.C. in 1992,  he joined a local art rock band called Sleep Theater with Rob Hamrick and Chris Sherman (later known as Freekbass) and later became involved in the experimental jazz world of the Knitting Factory before trying his hand at acid jazz. He was a founding member of the acid jazz group Groove Collective,

appearing on the group's first two albums, 1993's self-titled debut and 1996's We the People, and co-penning the song "Ascension (Don't Ever Wonder)" with Maxwell for his hit debut, Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite.

He has written songs for a number of musicians, including Maxwell, Jewel and Enrique Iglesias, and has produced records for various artists, including Kronos Quartet, The Scumfrog and Lucy Woodward. He has released three solo albums starting in the late 1990s, releasing two of the solo albums under an alias Big Muff, -- 1998's Music From the Aural Exciter and 2000's Aurally Exciting Remixes -- a combination of funk, techno, and hip-hop which spawned the modest U.K. hit version of Rodgers and Hart’s “My Funny Valentine,” from his first album, Music From the Aural Exciter in 1998. 

Shur was responsible for co-penning Santana's hit "Smooth" with Matchbox 20 frontman Rob Thomas).

In addition to writing and recording music, Shur has created his own artist development/production company, which he hopes will soon stretch out beyond music to broadcasting and computer animation.  

"Big Muff's MUSIC FROM THE AURAL EXCITER starts with the down and dirty groove of "Vavavoom," which doesn't quite get to go-go levels, "Theme from Big Muff" gets into silly, disposable funk, but "To the Bone" starts to reclaim the party, especially as it switches gears and gets more thoughtful after the break. But it's not until the soulful "Feel What You Know" that the album starts to start in earnest. "Poppy's Song" is sensual and melodic, and although there are very few ways to do "My Funny Valentine" wrong, luckily, he hits the right romantic notes. And despite its lascivious title, "Pornstar" is actually pretty fun, with its Spanish exclamations, while "Divine Intervention" starts off with an operatic vocal before the rest of the mellowness kicks in. Inconsistent, but the good parts of this album are very good." -- scoundrel

Big Muff – Music From The Aural Exciter
Label:  Snapt Records – PAD-1473
Format:  CD, Album
Country:  US
Released:  1998
Genre:  Electronic
Style:  House, Downtempo

Tracklist

1.  Vavavoom    3:58
2.  X-Static    4:48
3.  Theme From Big Muff    5:32
4.  To The Bone    5:53
5.  Feel What You Know    6:23
6.  Poppy's Song    5:18
7.  My Funny Valentine  9:57
8.  Soultown    3:50
9.  Pornstar    5:28
10.  Erotic Manifesto    4:42
11.  X-Static Floatations    5:27
12.  Divine Intervention    8:13