Sunday, March 22, 2015

Blues Pills & "classic rock"

When I was growing up in the early 1980s, I was (no surprise) a bit of an odd duck. I did not listen to the pop or rock of the day. I was entrenched in blues and what we now call “classic rock” of the 1960s & 1970s. Except for surviving holdovers (The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Who, etc.,) very few bands were doing that style of rock'n'roll. So, in my defense, that was what I liked and that is what I sought out.

Along came The Black Crowes and I realized I wasn't entirely alone.

Now, if you want to talk about being out of your expected of time-stream, there is a whole 'nother generation of “kids” out there, harkening back like I did – Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, London Souls, Saint Jude, Rival Sons, the Sheepdogs and my newest discovery, Blues Pills.

It's great that nowadays “doing your own music thing” is even more prevalent. In Europe there is a large fanbase for “classic rock.” But, not the same old tired FM radio anthems, but new bands performing & writing with classic rock influence. It's a genre, just like “classical” music is. They've been doing festivals and award shows for a while now, and this year (or 2014) America finally held its first “classic rock” awards show which includes awards for new music in that style.

's all good!


Check out this live Blues Pills show, and check out the absolutely rockin' song, “Gypsy.” 

3 comments:

  1. Some bands I've never heard of. I do like the blues , though

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love Blues Pills! Good lord but Elin Larsson has some pipes on her. She's like Janis Joplin, times ten. Amazing band.

    I was getting really burnt-out on music, but a lot of these "retro" bands got me back in. One band you may want to check out is Blood Ceremony. They're like a mixture of Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, and Coven (the "One Tin Soldier" from Billy Jack Coven, not the 80's thrash band). The singer, Alia O'Brien, has a great voice and she's an incredible flute player and keyboardist. They're considered "metal" but they're really more hard rock. All the songs are about witchcraft, all very spooky and extremely well written. The best album to start with is The Eldritch Dark, but they're all good.

    If you like Black Sabbath at all, then I fully recommend Orchid. They pretty much sound like somebody uncovered some unreleased Sabbath albums from 1970. Not much originality (just about every song is patterned on some Sabbath song), but when you can churn out what sound like unheard vintage Sabbath originals, who cares? I'm completely stuck on Orchid. Best album to start with there is Mouths of Madness.

    Some other good new "retro" bands are Kadavar, The Sword (very Robert E. Howard-ish lyrics, plus some sci-fi... should be right up your alley! Look up a song called "Lawless Lands" on YouTube... if that doesn't grab you, then ya may not dig 'em... if it does, check out "(The Night The Sky Cried) Tears of Fire" and go from there), Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats (a bit repetitive, but not bad), Ghost, and on the heavier end, Wo Fat and Orange Goblin.

    And there's a bunch more, but, don't want to overkill... :)

    ReplyDelete