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Counter Culture Recommended Listens..
Each month, we try to recommend 4 artists and their albums to you, our music-loving listener. These will
be chosen based upon on our personal strict criteria. First and foremost, they are albums by artists that we feel comfortable advising
you to spend your hard-earned money on. That doesn't mean that there are one or two good songs on them, but that these albums have
desirable beats from beginning to end.
We have also selected these albums NOT because of a record company's agenda, but because we feel these are very good and will stand the
test of time. And most importantly, we feel these should be heard not only at our shop but on your own radio.
Below you will find information about the artist, album reviews from some major music publications, as well as links to bios, multimedia
and pictures, if available. Enjoy these albums and please let us know what you think.
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Reviews
Allmusic
Rolling Stone
Glide Magazine
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Ben Harper - Both Sides of the Gun
Combining shuddering, groove-laden funky soul and folky handcrafted acoustics, singer/songwriter Ben Harper had cult status during the course of the '90s
but gained wider attention toward the end of the decade. Harper combined elements of classic singer/songwriters, blues revivalists, Jimi Hendrix, and '90s jam
bands like Blues Traveler, Hootie & the Blowfish, and Phish, which meant that he was embraced by critics and college kids alike. Though he never had a hit
album, his body of work sold consistently and he toured constantly, building a solid, dedicated fan base.
A native of California,Harper grew up listeningto blues, folk, soul, R&B, and reggae. As a child, he started playing guitar, and began to perform regularly
as a preteen. During his adolescence, he turned toward acoustic slide guitar, which would eventually become his signature instrument. After steady gigging
in the Los Angeles area, Harper scored a deal with Virgin Records in 1992. He released his debut album, Welcome to the Cruel World, two years later to
positive reviews. Released in 1995, the politically heavy Fight for Your Mind made for a strong sophomore effort, an obvious growth in musical experimentation
and individual declamation.
When it came to recording his fifth studio effort, Harper went back to his drawing board. He'd circled the world countless times and, naturally, he brashly
sang about it on the worldbeat-inspired Diamonds on the Inside, which appeared in March 2003. After a European tour with the Blind Boys of Alabama in 2004,
the two acts entered the studio together and laid down ten tracks in two different sessions at Capitol Records' basement studios. The resulting collaborative
album (issued under the names of both Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama), There WiIl Be a Light, was released in September of 2004. The CD/DVD set Live at
the Apollo followed in fall 2005. The double LP Both Sides of the Gun was scheduled for release in March 2006.
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Reviews
Eonline
Dotmusic
Guarians
The A.V. Club
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Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics
Of the innumerable one-hit wonders littering the cultural landscape, few, if any, were so brave, so frequently brilliant, and so deliciously weird as the Flaming Lips.
To even classify the Lips as merely a one-hit wonder is to do the group a grave injustice: although their standing as a commercial entity proved little more than a blip
on the radar screen, their moment of Top 40 success was simply another pit stop on one of the more surreal and haphazard career trajectories in pop music -- an
acid-bubblegum band with as much affinity for sweet melodies as blistering noise assaults, their off-kilter sound, uncommon emotional depth, and bizarre history
(packed with tales of self-immolating fans and the like) firmly established them as one of the true originals of the post-punk era. The Flaming Lips formed in Oklahoma
City in 1983, when founder and guitarist Wayne Coyne allegedly stole a collection of musical instruments from an area church hall and enlisted his vocalist brother
Mark and bassist Michael Ivins to start a band.
Giving themselves the nonsensical name the Flaming Lips (its origin variously attributed to a porn film, an obscure drug reference, or a dream in which a fiery Virgin
Mary plants a kiss on Wayne in the backseat of his car), the band made its live debut at a local transvestite club. After progressing through an endless string of
drummers, they recruited percussionist Richard English prior to recording their self-titled debut, issued on green vinyl on their own Lovely Sorts of Death label in
1985. When Mark Coyne soon departed to get married, Wayne assumed full control of the group; in addition to remaining its lead guitarist, he also became the primary
singer and songwriter. Continuing on as a trio, the Lips released 1986's Hear It Is, followed a year later by Oh My Gawd!!!...The Flaming Lips. While touring in
support of the Butthole Surfers, they played Buffalo, NY, where they were befriended by concert promoter Jonathan Donahue; after a jam session with Donahue's nascent
band Mercury Rev, he and Coyne became close friends, and Donahue eventually signed on as the group'ssound technician.
After several obscure recordings and a three-year absence from the shelves, 2002 brought several new releases, including the new record Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
and a two-volume retrospective of the Restless years. Yoshimi won the group even more popular and critical acclaim than The Soft Bulletin, which the group maximized
by spending half of 2002 appearing with Beck on his Sea Change tour as both his opening act and backing band. The Lips kept busy over the next two years by touring in
support of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and working on their movie Christmas on Mars. They returned to the studio in 2004 and spent much of 2005 recording; that
year, the Flaming Lips documentary The Fearless Freaks and VOID video collection were both released,whetting fans' appetites for the band's 2006 album At War with
the Mystics.
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Reviews
Pop Matters
the A.V. Club
All Music
Pitchfork
Photos
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Blackalicious - the Craft
Like a few other West Coast rap acts, including the Pharcyde and Jurassic 5, Blackalicious has generally favored what hip-hoppers call the "positive tip"; in
other words, its lyrics have often been spiritual and uplifting rather than violent or misogynous. Like a lot of experimental alternative rappers, Blackalicious
can be quirky and eccentric; nonetheless, spirituality is a big part of the group's music. Although Blackalicious wasn't formed until the early '90s, its members
had known each other since the late '80s. Founding members Gift of Gab (Timothy Parker) and Chief Xcel (Xavier Mosley) first met in Sacramento, CA, in 1987 when
they were students at John F. Kennedy High School. Neither of them was originally from Sacramento; DJ/producer Xcel (who was going by DJ IceSki at the time) was
a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, while rapper Gift of Gab was from Los Angeles' suburban San Fernando Valley.
The two went their separate ways after Gift of Gab (also known as Gabby T) graduated from Kennedy High in 1989, but they were reunited in Davis, CA, in 1992. By that
time, Xcel had become a student at the University of California at Davis and the Gift of Gab had moved to Davis to form Blackalicious with him. UC Davis was where
Xcel had started working with a hip-hop crew named SoleSides, whose members included DJ Shadow, Lateef the Truth Speaker, and Lyrics Born. SoleSides Records was the
name of the SoleSides Crew's Northern California record company and in 1994, that label released Blackalicious' debut single "Swan Lake." Although not a triple-platinum
smash, the single was a small underground hit that fared well among alternative rap audiences. The following year, SoleSides Records released a Blackalicious EP titled
Melodica. By late 1997, SoleSides Records had transformed into Quannum Records, and in 1999, Quannum put out another Blackalicious EP, A2G.
In 2000, Quannum released the group's full-length debut Nia (whose title is the Swahili word for purpose). After being together eight years, Blackalicious finally
signed with a major label when, in late 2000, the Californians were added by MCA. In April 2002, Quannum/MCA released Blazing Arrow, which boasted guest appearances
ranging from vocalist Zack de la Rocha (of Rage Against the Machine) to the Roots' ?uestlove to veteran soul singer Gil Scott-Heron. After the requisite tour, both
Xcel and Gab began developing solo material; Quannum released both Maroons' Ambush (Chief Xcel with Latyrx's Lateef the Truth Speaker) as well as a Gift of Gab solo
LP, Fourth Dimensional Rocketships Going Up. The pair returned in 2005 for their third album, The Craft, with a contract in hand from the Anti- label.
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Reviews
Rolling Stone
Scottsman
NME
Billboard
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Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
So who is Gnarls Barkley? Diligent pen pal to Bangs, soul giant Isaac Hayes, and Violent Femmes ringleader Gordon Gano? Well-kept romantic consort to pop stars
Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson? English teacher to synth-rock legends Kraftwerk?
It seems that, in the music world, Gnarls Barkley is always nearby yet impossible to find. The membership rolls of both the Atlanta hip hop collective Dungeon
Family and Athens, Georgia's psychedelic enclave Elephant Six list Barkley as an affiliate, but mention him to either group and they'll shoot each other frightened
looks and start talking basketball. The rumors fly hard in every direction and remain defiantly unverifiable.
Crazy name, crazy single, and Gnarls is, of course, a crazy non-existent kind of guy, the nominal creator of one of the year's most splendid albums to date,
confirming the arrival of much more than a history making one-hit wonder.
Gnarl is, in fact, the collective noun for Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse, producer of the Gorillaz and post-modern hip-hop warrior, and the considerable vocal
talent of Cee-Lo, an Atlantan with the gift of sounding both old school and very 21st century. Mr Mouse employs and applies state of the art technology that
succeeds in leaving the soul intact and nicely arranged on the likes of 'Feng Shui', while smoothly blending vintage 'Pastime Paradise' era Stevie Wonder with the
muscle-bound rhythms of Northern Soul on 'Smiley Faces'. Burton excels in programming percussion in particular, making the current chart topper hypnotic whether
on a dance floor or firing out of radio speakers. "It's deep how you can be so shallow," croons Cee-Lo in the tastily succinct 'Basically', typical of a constantly
playful lyrical touch complementing the mischief in the music, which references everything from deep house to Sax. It could be argued that the most impressive
track here is a cover of the Americana pioneers Violent Femmes' 'Gone Daddy Gone', which just oozes grubby sweat. Music fans aged 15 right up to 50 years old
will find this package hard to resist.
Until Next Time,
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