Rock A Vila ‎– "¡¡ Goza la Vida !!" 1993****

If you asked me a month ago about Balearic music, the only kind that would come to mind is the so-called Balearic House scene, a kind of electronic chill-out music with exotic sprinkles that originated in Ibiza clubs and dominated the 90's and 00's. Which is sooo unfair to the people of these beautiful islands. We're talking about music made (mostly) by foreigners for the entertainment of tourists - that's what people know of their culture. Now I'm not an islander myself, but I come from an island country and I see what summer is like for the locals. Want to know what summer in Ibiza (or Santorini, or Paros) is like for them? Work, work, work. Not that I feel sorry for them, they mostly make good money and have the rest of the year to relax. With the visitors gone (I'm talking about Greece now, I wouldn't know about Ibiza) life resumes its regular pace, the people reclaim their space and are free to engage in other activities than serving tourists, and to play the music they like - which may be pop, rock, classical, jazz or folk - surely anything except the so-called Balearic Beat.

During my recent trip to Mallorca I researched second-hand record stores for local (as well as generally Spanish) music - some folk, but mostly rock as that is my favorite genre. Among other LP's I picked from the offers section, I got this one. I thought here's a Spanish-language rockabilly album made in Ibiza, that challenges any preconceptions one has about rockabilly and about Ibiza which, as I mentioned, people always identify with chill-out electronica. Now these boys don't seem too chill: they seem passionate about the music and culture of a long-gone era, the era that gave birth to the greatest musical revolution since the first guitar was plugged into an amplifier. When I saw them on the cover I was immediately reminded of Athens rockabillies I grew up with: same pose, same clothes, hair, and faces (I guess we Mediterraneans look alike). As for the island town on the background, that also looked familiar: the boats on the port, the three-story buildings on the front line (in Greece these are typically holiday rentals with cafeterias or taverns on the ground floor), church and defensive walls on the top for protection against pirates... all like a typical Greek island. The most complete bio of this band can be found in this Spanish blog. With a bit of help from google translation, this seems to be their story: the band was formed by 4 teenage boys in 1986, and won second place in a 1990 Ibiza Battle-Of-The-Bands-style contest leading to a split LP with the winners, Falsa Alarma. In '93 they traveled to Mérida, Spain, to record this, their only, LP. They never seem to have made a serious attempt for a national (let alone international) career, other than supporting visiting rockers, and dissolved soon after, with the exception of a short 2004 reunion. For what seems to be an unambitious bunch, the band's playing and record production is surprisingly professional, akin to a Spanish version of The Stray Cats - which means a retro sound with a more contemporary alt-rock production. Mostly ultra fast -but still quite danceable- good-timey rockabilly featuring boogie woogie piano, just the right amount of guitar solos, and confident vocals to the effect that the Spanish lyrics roll naturally - which is not always a given. There's some stylistic variation with a couple of Elvis-style ballads ("Cuando Pienso En Ti", "Corazon Solitario"), jump-blues "Amiga Fiel", and Southern Rock "Lookin' Out My Back Door". The latter (originally written by John Fogerty) is the only cover, and one of just two tracks sung in English - the other being "Movin' Shack". Apparently there's no re-release or CD edition of this album. Never been sold on discogs - possibly a rare, though not necessarily sought-after, item. Concerning the rating, I was divided between 3* and 4*. On the one hand there's little, other than geography, to distinguish Rock A Vila from other revival bands. On the other hand, this is a decent rockabilly record which any lover of classic rock'n'roll is bound to enjoy. It is the fun factor, along with the fact that this obviously a labor of love, that drove me to award it 4*.

**** for Goza La Vida, Camino De Destruccion, Viejo Sam, Movin' Shack

*** for Amiga Fiel, Hoy Volvere, Lookin' Out My Back Door, Sobre Dos Ruedas, Corazon Solitario, Dulce Azul, El Diablo De La Carretera

** for Cuando Pienso En Ti

Record Shops of Palma De Mallorca

Now I know you don't go to Mallorca for the shopping. You go there for the sea and sun, for the Gothic and Moorish monuments if you're a history buff, and eventually the local culture and food. I only stayed in its capital Palma for 1,5 day, but I do have a suggestion for the foodies: it's called the Celler de la Premsa. Nice atmosphere and local dishes which I haven't tried before, including the only soup I've tasted which isn't liquid, as it's filled with brown bread and vegetables until the bread absorbs almost all of the broth. I also loved the pork loin with cabbage (I know, the pork and cabbage combination sounds like something a German might think of, but this tastes purely Mediterranean), beef stew and stuffed aubergines. The paella also looked delicious, but I didn't order it as I had paella the previous evening. What a difference from what I saw in the touristic Cala d'Or: nice beach for sure, though being a Greek myself I wasn't that impressed, but no real local colour. I went to meet some Dutch friends who happened to be there on the same day, and my God it was like being in another country: you could order the same bitterballen and hapjes they sell at Dutch pubs, and eat fast food burritos (which probably tourists think are Latin and therefore local) or pizza. 
But don't get me talking about food when I really wanted to tell you about Palma's record shops. So the tourists just pass by on their way to the beaches, but I thought it's a big town (400.000+ inhabitants) there are bound to be some record shops to browse for music. Indeed there are a few, but pretty cool, ones. The coolest probably is Espai Xocolat at Font i Monteros 18. If the title seems strangely written, it's because it's not Spanish but Catalan, which is the primary language in the Balearic islands. It doubles as a coffee bar and live music space as well. It's pretty big with a wide selection of all genres. About 60% of the shop is dedicated to new CD's (mostly below €10, many on offer 3-for-2). Lots of jazz, rock, and local (Spanish and Catalan) titles. 40% of the shop is taken by vinyl both new and 2nd hand. Typical prices for used records are €6-10 but there are also many offers for €2. Some books and DVD's are also on sale. The second record shop is only a 5-minute walk away and a few steps down a shady gallery (Passatge Particular Antoni Torrandell 2). As the name Mais Vinilo suggests, it's completely dedicated to vinyl, both new (€20+) and used (mostly €6-15 but also some under €5 in less than mint condition). Again all kinds of music, but above all a very good selection of Garage/Psychedelia (mostly reissues), Punk/Alternative and local bands. Also a lot of 7' singles on sale. Both shops, as well as the tavern I mentioned earlier, are very close to each other and in the more modern part of the city, about 10-15 minutes walk from Plaça Major.

About the same distance from Plaça to a different direction, you can find Palma's 3rd record shop, which was closed during my visit. It's called Disco Loco and, judging by the photos of the interior at Google, it seems quite big and offers mainly CD's as well as vinyl, DVD, T-shirts and various trinkets. Should you want to look for music during siesta hours (roughly 2-5 pm) when most shops are closed, there are always the El Corte Inglés department stores. They have a limited variety of new CD (€5-15) and vinyl (€17-25) but I did find some good bargains during my visit. Well, as I said before, I know you don't go Mallorca for shopping, but it's worth spending a day in the beautiful old town, visiting the Palacio Real de La Almudaina and Catedral, and -for music lovers- browse the records in Espai Xocolat en Mais Vinilo. The prices are rather good, and I sincerely suggest to do some searching on local bands and music and get an aural souvenir of your visit. Immerse yourself a little in Balearic culture, music and cuisine, don't just lie under the sun. You won't regret it!

Choose the next album to be presented in this blog

When I started this blog I used to pick a random album every day to review. Of course keeping it up was impossible seeing as I also have a job to do and a life to live, so I've now settled on a rate of 4-to-5 albums per month, fully realizing that I'll never get through all of them. I now mostly present what I happen to be listening to lately, which is often my latest purchases, or any album with a story to tell. I thought I'd give my readers the chance to choose my next presentations, though: just pick any album out from my collection, I've uploaded (almost) everything on discogs. While for most of these albums it's easy to find online reviews I've noticed that information on some others is rather scarce. So if there's something you'd like to learn more about, here you are. Take your pick: https://www.discogs.com/user/kostas150170/collection

Miners Of Muzo "Apogee" 1985***

Believe it or not, there used to be a time before internet. For information on music, records etc. we used to depend on books, magazines, radio, and friends. Another source was the liner notes on records. It was around 1990 that I learned from the insert of Music Maniac's Gimmick compilation (more about that LP on another post) the complete discography of The Miners Of Muzo. I already had their two albums which were available locally (one by Music Maniac and one released by a Greek label) but it turned out there were two others that were impossible to locate. I remember asking about them at the back room of the 7+7 record shop in Monastiraki. The clerk, who was not just any clerk but a member of local garage heroes Sound Explosion, told me he had the albums on tape, and that the only person he knew who owned the actual records was Grigoris Vaios, a famous Athenian rock DJ who worked at the same store - much later I found out that Vaios was also co-founder of the Wipe-Out label and a big record collector (according to this article he owns 20.000 LP's and 14.000 CD's - mostly garage and psychedelia). I later acquired both these albums (Dig Deeper for... and Apogee) for a relatively steep price: Apogee cost me around 4000 drachmas, which is a mere €13 nowadays, but was at the time a big deal: half a day's wage. Both these albums can be obtained cheaper on discogs now, but as I said before... no internet back then, finding a record meant a lot of physical searching - but then, the joy of finding it...OMG!

The clerk at 7+7 was enthusiastic about Dig Deeper and less so about Apogee, although he did like the title song and the cover of "Signed D.C." Of course his band (Sound Explosion) had always been strict 60's purists, and Dig Deeper had a straight Nuggets-style garage sound which would naturally appeal to him. Apogee on the other hand caught the band during the transformation from a Birthday Party-like noise/new wave band to melodic garage rockers. By no means mere 60's revivalists, this Dutch band from Tilburg are more in sync with Californian paisley underground (Dream Syndicate, Green On Red) and Australian punk (Radio Birdman, Lime Spiders, Beasts Of Bourbon). The album opens with the electrifying hi-energy rocker "Arson Baby" and closes with a hard rockin' cover of Alex Harvey's "Midnight Moses". In between there's some noisier psychobilly ("Lil' Black Voodoo Doll", "Who Do You Love"), psycho/goth talking blues ("Lou Ann"), and an emotive cover of Love's "Signed D.C." "I'm The Gun" sounds a lot like certain mid-tempo Stooges tunes. The remaining tracks also happen to be my favorites in this LP: fast guitar-driven rockers, with nice use of organ and saxophone, and catchy choruses with vocal harmonies. I often catch myself singing along to "The Apogee Of Love" and "My Heart My Home", always a good sign. The Miners have a CD compilation called About Time which is a perfect starting point for anyone who wants to get into this band. Apogee, as well as their other albums (to be presented here in the future), is inessential but certainly recommended for fans of 80's garage/alternative sound. They haven't been very active since the mid-90's, although they've recently reappeared with a new CD and some sporadic gigs here in Holland. If I can, I'll catch them live sometime, and I'll be sure to share my impressions and a few photos of the event.

**** for Arson Baby, Over & Done, The Apogee Of Love, Come On, My Heart My Home, Signed D.C.

*** for Who Do You Love, I'm The Gun, Lil' Black Voodoo Doll, Midnight Moses

** for Lou Ann

Roky Erickson and the Aliens, “I Think of Demons” 1979(rec) 1986(comp)😈😈😈😈😈

I was deeply sad to hear last week of the demise of Roky Erickson, a tragic rock'n'roll hero and true original. As much as it's true that the originality of his work is closely connected with his mental health problems, I'd hate people to attribute his work to them: many have battled with schizophrenia, very few have made worthwhile art out of their demons. Roky became a local legend in the Austin scene quite early. He co-founded The 13th Floor Elevators at the age of 18 in '65, and had his biggest hit the next year with garage rocker "You're Gonna Miss Me", a classic break up song which has often been anthologized and covered since - you may also remember it from the movie High Fidelity. It's also the title of a -highly recommended- documentary on Erickson's life story. His first LP The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators (also 1966) is considered the first psychedelic album and was conceived as an inner journey to mystical "knowledge" through the use of LSD. Other musicians (Syd Barrett, Peter Green, Skip Spence) have had their careers wrecked by drugs-induced schizophrenia, but Roky seemed to cope well with drugs until the fateful moment of his arrest for the possession of a single marijuana joint in '69. Faced with the prospect of a 10-year jail sentence (Texan-style justice!) he chose to plead insanity and enter a psychiatric hospital, where he was involuntarily subjected to electro-shock therapy. After several escapes he was committed to Arkham (ehmm, sorry, Rusk State) maximum security hospital for the criminally insane together with axe murderers and the like. After 4 more years of electroshocks and huge doses of Thorazine, he was released in a pitiful state. What had been once just an unruly, drugs-experimenting, youth, was now convinced that his body was inhabited by aliens and saw demons lurking in every corner.

His new band, called Blieb Alien or simply The Aliens played a different style of music, closer to hard rock, while Roky screamed as if the horrors he sang about were real and chasing him. The lyrics are inspired by sci-fi and monster movies as well as his own nightmares. Even though the words aren't meant to be taken literally (he wasn't that crazy, at least not when he was released), he has admitted to conversing with Satan in the insane asylum, and was convinced that aliens walk among us on the Earth, often worried that his own body was taken over by one. His first post-asylum album was called The Evil One (I Think Of Demons is a partial reissue with slightly changed tracklisting). The title refers to Roky himself as he -the son of a repressive, fanatical Christian, mother- was convinced during his incarceration that only an alliance with Satan would help him get through the living hell of the asylum. Not that he ever seriously dabbled in Satanism, it was just a decision he had made in his head, and later reversed. The recording of the album was difficult, as Roky's concentration was fleeting.

It is a testament to the skill of producer (and former C.C.R. bassist) Stu Cook that it sounds as tight as it does, given that Roky's vocal had to be assembled from many different performances recorded in a period of two years. The band, on the other hand, sound fantastic, especially the duets of Duane Aslaksen on guitar and Bill Miller (former Cold Sun) on electric autoharp. The autoharp here is played like an electric guitar instead of the usual Celtic style, which has an other-worldly effect: the sound is reminiscent of twin lead guitar bands like Thin Lizzy or Wishbone Ash, but stranger. Opener "Two Headed Dog (Red Temple Prayer)" is a hard rocker with flaming guitars, shrieks and barks, and oblique, unsettling, lyrics. Improbably it's inspired by a true story: Soviet scientist and organ transplant pioneer Vladimir Demikhov had secretly experimented with head transplants, and even succeeded in creating two-headed dogs some of which survived for days after the operation. God knows what a fragile soul like Roky's, who had suffered for years in the hands of doctors, made of such facts. "Bloody Hammer" seems to be about his years in the asylum. Although the lyrics don't make any sense they conjure powerful and terrifying images: chains, ghosts, and psychiatrists making sure their patients don't "hammer their minds out". Sample verse: "I am the special one/My eyes, green and blue/And safely unbegotten/To the left to say "no"/While the others with their hair turned white/They just roll their eyes back to the top of their head/And hammer the attic floor with a bloody hammer/I never have the bloody hammer" What the hell was that about? I don't know but it's no harmless "I've-fallen-in-love-with-the-monster-man" Halloween fun, it's genuinely scary stuff. Compared to it, a song like the slow and ominous "Night Of The Vampire" with its Gothic organ is reassuringly rooted in classic horror literature. "Stand For The Fire Demon" is another theatrical and imposing semi-ballad, while the (literally) funereal-paced "I Walked With A Zombie" is strangely reminiscent of love songs by 50's girl groups. The rockabilly-ish "Don't Shake Me Lucifer" is about being tormented by Satan on a sleepless night, but on most songs he sings from the perspective of "the Evil One", some kind of demonic creature reveling in the darkness - though it's pretty obvious the singer chose to embrace his demons in order to appease them, somewhat similar to what he did when he had a notary officially declare him an alien in the eyes of the State, an act that had the desired effect of pacifying and silencing the inner voices. One of too many crazy stories about Roky, we'll save some for another post. Most of the other songs in the LP are fast rockers featuring guitar/autoharp duets, powerful singing and occult lyrics, each of them a classic. The album appeared in 1980 with partially different songs and titles (as Roky Erickson & The Aliens, The Evil One, and -later- as I Think Of Demons). It remains his best, and most cohesive, solo release and became a cult favorite with alternative rockers. The songs have been covered by R.E.M., The Foo Fighters, Queens Of The Stone Age, Fuzztones, and a whole slew of garage and punk bands. But no-one ever managed to transport us inside the nightmare like Roky did. You can get the music right, after all it's only rock'n'roll, but all the feeling is in the voice. R.I.P. Roky. You'll never know how right you were when you sang "You're Gonna Miss Me" all those years ago...

***** for Two Headed Dog (Red Temple Prayer),  I Think Of Demons, I Walked With A Zombie, Don't Shake Me Lucifer, Night Of The Vampire, Bloody Hammer, Creature With The Atom Brain, The Wind And More

**** for White Faces, Cold Night For Alligators, Mine Mine Mind, Stand For The Fire Demon

Ska-P "Eurosis" 1998 €€€€

The recent European Parliament election was, we were told, the most important ever: these elections could promote dangerous anti-European, populist, forces which could bring the United Europe experiment to an end. Brexit would either be our wake-up call or the start of the unraveling. It's true that the political vocabulary of these "populist" forces is mostly despicable: fearmongering, nationalism, xenophobia, islamophobia, isolationism. One cannot dispute that they represent a danger to what we've come to consider as European values of tolerance and progress. But what exactly is that European status quo we're supposed to fight to save? One where important financial decisions are taken behind closed-doors meetings by Eurozone ministers and a central bank not subject to any democratic control. A Union which has, post-Maastricht, integrated the neo-liberal dogma, whose financial rules were tailored to the German elite's needs, rigged into hoarding surpluses in the economically developed EU core while the periphery accumulates deficit and debt. So when inevitably countries like Greece and Spain got into trouble what did they get? loans that went directly into repaying German and French banks, tied to a program of brutal austerity that plunged them into recession and unemployment. While the people never saw a single cent of the loans they were saddled with for generations, all liquidity was squeezed from the economy to pay back the creditors who had the nerve to appear as saviors. Small businesses closed down, big ones moved to safer havens, wages were cut, taxes were raised, all in the name of the sacred euro. Meanwhile, the German people were made to believe that these billions did not go into saving the banks (again!) but into rescuing lazy and incompetent Southern Europeans. If this is the way the EU and the Euro currently work, why are we surprised when people turn to the likes of LePen and Salvini for an alternative?
Even though Eurosis was released 20 years ago, it suddenly struck me as relevant: its title is a mix of "euro" and "neurosis", and the cover depicts a euro-coin picturing some sort of baby demon - very aptly as the common currency was still in its design stage. Of course Ska-P couldn't possibly have foreseen how thoroughly Spain would be fucked over by the euro-system, so the euro-demon stands for the corrosive power of money in general, rather than for actual Eurozone economic policies. They more or less ignore the EU and attack everything they think is wrong with Spain and the world: their country's corrupt conservative government and financial elite ("Circo Ibérico", "España Va Bien", "Kacikes"), the Catholic Church ("Villancico"), the institution of monarchy ("Simpático Holgazán"), poverty and repression in Latin America ("Paramilitar", "Juan Sin Tierra", "América Latina Libre"), animal furs ("Kémalo"), the narco-police ("Al Turrón") etc. Far from being preachy, they approach their subjects with humor while the music is also, above all, fun: wild, joyous, fast, and very very loud. Their songs are so catchy that they've become very popular in their home country, even among those who do not share their radical ideology. Though I wouldn't call their albums samey, it's fair to say that they all present a similar mix of the same ingredients: Ska, Alternative, Latin, and Punk. "Paramilitar" adds a bit of rap metal a la Rage Against The Machine, while "Juan Sin Tierra" is based on a ballad by Chilean political troubadour Victor Jara and only transforms into Ska-P's familiar latin ska style halfway through. "España Va Bien" starts as a frantic country number to engulf mariachi music, ska, and even can can, while "Seguimos En Pie" sports a relatively slower reggae beat and "Poder pa'l pueblo" is the band's first instrumental. Incidentally, the band features two main vocalists, lead singer Pulpul and backing vocalist/toaster/entertainer Pipi fulfilling a role similar to Keith Flint's in Prodigy - one has to see them live to appreciate the combination. Video clips reveal the band to be at their best live, but all their CD's are worth buying: well produced, pure, infectious fun - with a message!  

***** for Paramilitar

**** for Circo Ibérico, Villancico, España Va Bien, Simpático Holgazán, Juan Sin Tierra

*** for Kémalo, Poder Pa'l Pueblo, Kacikes, América Latina Libre, Al Turrón, Seguimos En Pie