Goodnight, Meg. Goodnight, Jack.
One of the great American bands has called it a collective career. In an out-of-the-blue announcement on their website (and mirrored on Third Man Records’ site), Jack and Meg White announced the official end of the White Stripes as a recording and performing unit.
In the statement attributed to the former bandmates/spouses, they state:
“The reason is not due to artistic differences or lack of wanting to continue, nor any health issues as both Meg and Jack are feeling fine and in good health.
It is for a myriad of reasons, but mostly to preserve What is beautiful and special about the band and have it stay that way.”
Thankfully, there is still a whole slew of unreleased live and studio recordings from the White Stripes in the vaults, and the band has promised to release them though Third Man Records’ Vault Subscription series – not to mention the fact that Jack White still has plenty to keep him busy with Third Man, The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs, and whatever else is on his considerable, always filling plate.
[Not that no one who loved this band wouldn't turn down a reunion, though... ;)]
An article I wish I’d written…
While I get the next blog post ready (hopefully by the end of tonight), here’s a little bonus reading material: an article from Alternative Press on the current financial struggles of most bands. Think before you do that illegal download or choose not to buy merch at a show, people…
Thanks to Christopher Fuentes-Woods for the link.
A Humble Beginning…
Every record label has had its unusual beginnings. Had one label in particular not started out in another area, it’s likely that a lot of things we take for granted simply would not exist. Case in point, the advertisement below:
An impromptu bit of Googling revealed the above scan: a print ad in a ham radio magazine called Check-Off for a company called SST Electronics.
If that logo and their PO Box address look familiar, you’re absolutely right – that same logo and address would get a lot more exposure on a long list of punk, alternative, and indie rock releases that are now considered classics.
In brief, Greg Ginn had already been running a pretty good business selling ham radio equipment of his own design (if I remember correctly, he may even have a patent or two under his belt for some of that stuff). Around the time this ad was being seen by ham radio enthusiasts all over the country, Black Flag had already recorded the session from which their first EP Nervous Breakdown – and a few years later, the first half of Side A of Everything Went Black – would be derived. They were waiting on Bomp! Records to release it, but when delays proved too long, Ginn decided to put his business skills, some of the profits he had made from his ham radio products, and the PO Box he already had to good – soon to be better – use, found a pressing plant in the phone book, and, with a first pressing of about 300 to 500 copies (stories vary), SST Records was born.
Both SST Records and SST Electronics would exist side by side for a few years – according to Michael Azzerad’s book Our Band Could Be Your Life, the Minutemen all even had jobs assembling some of SST Electronics’ products – but by 1982 SST would strictly be a record company, leaving ham radio enthusiasts in the dust but giving music fans a reason to live and then some.
For even having a small business of his own to help fund what would become one of the most influential labels in contemporary American music, music fans should be grateful. Had Greg Ginn not taken that first step, none of us would have ever heard of Black Flag, The Minutemen, The Meat Puppets, Husker Du, Saccharine Trust, Bad Brains, fIREHOSE, Sonic Youth, or Dinosaur Jr., countless bands of today that we take for granted would never have been influenced by artists like the aforementioned in the positive manner they were, and blogs like this one might not even exist.
Definitely something to think about.
This Next Year Is Going To Be Crazy…
2010 is barely two days old, and already there’s new music to look forward to. Nothing on the Western music front yet, as far as I know. But by the time this post is less than a week old, a new Shonen Knife album will be on my desk. A new Koda Kumi album and new Buono! album will follow next month, followed by a new Morning Musume album the month after that – the latter just in time to define the final months of my bachelorhood. And there’s also singles from MoMusu, AKB48, Buono! and SCANDAL to deal with during that time period as well. The last time I recall looking forward to a new non-J-pop release at the beginning of the year, it was The Stooges’ The Weirdness album, which was scheduled within days of Morning Musume dropping Sexy 8 Beat – and those two albums dropping within weeks of each other early in 2007 made the rest of that year quite the anti-climax. By the end of the year, while I was trying to sum up the year in albums at MotokoAoyama.com, I was also planning to propose to my girlfriend.
Oh yeah, there’s that little interruption.
Truth be told, I’m already planning ahead, and not just for that. I’ve already anticipated that there’s going to be a short break in blogging action around the last week of June and going on for at least another week. Which only means one thing: I intend to stay as busy as possible, trying to post as much as possible here and at So Hot She Shits Fire (and whenever I can at My Sweet Meetan), while also going into final preparations for the wedding, getting the last scenes folded into Here Is The Wonderland in the immediate weeks to come, thus finishing that long-in-the-making first draft before plunging into the second, which should only take a minuscule fraction of the time it took to complete the first draft. And also upping my guitar skills.
What?
Yeah, I got a new electric guitar over the Christmas holidays. I don’t think I will be discussing it much here – this blog is meant for serious music discussion, and personal ramblings about trying to re-master the pentatonic scale or getting a better handle on sweep picking don’t really belong here, so there may be a little place somewhere where I’ll let those out of my system. (Updates about my personal life don’t belong here either, of course. I might refer to them in vague here or in “conversation” at SHSSF, but that’s another story, and I already have places for that.)
This, in a nutshell, is as personal as I intend to get, and I’m keeping it in topic: 2010 is going to see a lot more activity here. Beyond that, I’m not hard to find, as the list of “personal” links that has always existed here and at this blog’s predecessor will attest. With one of the series that I hinted at back in November (the Best Albums of 2009 series) out of the way, the other one will be starting next week to formally kick off blogging activity here at TGML for 2010. For now, I’m going to spend the rest of the weekend decompressing from New Year’s Eve/Day.
Other than that (and my wedding), I don’t know what’s going to take place in 2010. Hell, I didn’t know when 2009 started that Morning Musume were getting ready to announce their American debut and that Ron Asheton was going to be transferred from the Stooges to Rock N’Roll Heaven’s Helluva Band either.
Stay tuned. Things are only going to get insane here. But in a good way, of course.
REVIEW: THE HUSKY “Husky”
THE HUSKY
Husky
(Chockyu)
Availablilty: CD EP
Rating: 
While the rest of Whiteberry has been, for the most part, idle and out of the limelight since their final concerts in March of 2004, lead singer Yuki Maeda has not. In 2006, with fellow ex-Whiteberry, bassist Yukari Hasegawa briefly in tow, Yuki Madea reemerged on the Japanese independent label Deadgirls with an eponymous CD EP from her first post-Whiteberry band, a four-piece all-female unit dubbed yukki. The existence of the new group was something I wasn’t aware of until Zush at Kakko-ii.com wrote about her new band’s project in late 2006. Thankfully, I got a hold of a copy of the CD in time for it to make my list of the Top Albums Of 2006 on MotokoAoyama.com v1.0. yukki (the band and the EP) found Yuki Maeda not only singing, but playing guitar and writing all of the material. It is a great EP – imagine Whiteberry without the keyboards.
Unfortunately, yukki the band never followed up yukki the EP. Yukari Hasegawa disappeared again (presumably to return to college), and the band continued for several months before quietly disappearing. No one who followed Whiteberry and yukki knew what was up until the group’s homepage presented a link to another site – the homepage for a new band fronted by Ms. Maeda called The Husky.
With their sort-of-eponymous debut CD EP, again an independent release (this time on a label called Chockyu), Yuki Maeda seems to be slowly progressing away from her Whiteberry past. While her distinctive vocals remain, with the existence of The Husky, Yuki Maeda finds herself, for the first time in her professional career, to be the only female member of the group. Joining her in the lineup are former La’cryma Christi drummer Levin and newcomers Yasuaki Miyaji on guitar and Sunao Nakamura on bass and baritone guitar. Like with her previous post-Whiteberry band, Yuki Maeda continues to rely on her own material, having penned all of the songs on the album, save for two songs where her lyrics are set to music composed by Miyaji.
“Story”, the EP’s highlighted track (a PV exists, Yuki’s first since “Shinjiri Chikara” – yukki never made any) opens the proceedings in fine form. Initially, the song retains the Whiteberry-minus-keyboards punk sound from yukki, only to be interrupted first by a baritone guitar riff from Nakamura and then by a tinny acoustic-sounding guitar (actually an unplugged electric recorded with a microphone) initially underpinning Yuki’s vocals before veering back into Whiteberry-style punk.
“Hitori Botsuchi” follows with a slightly slower rock tempo and an arrangement and chord sequence that recalls some of Living Colour’s minor-key material from Time’s Up. Miyavi does some rather interesting guitar work in the recording’s left channel that sounds more like a synthesizer than a guitar, while a creepy-sounding string synthesizer (played by an uncredited keyboardist) intrudes on the song’s atmosphere.
“not control” (the song title isn’t capitalized), one of two songs co-written by Miyaji, takes the band and the EP on a left-field turn by bringing some ZZ Top-meets-George Thorogood blues riffing into the mix for much of the song. A false ending suddenly takes the band into a jazz-rock vein for the song’s coda.
“Tsuchi” keeps the band within blues/classic rock territory by way of Elvis Costello, slowing down the tempo and giving them a 12/8 time signature to contend with. A slightly anarchic Theremin (or at least Miyaji making some Theremin-like sounds with his guitar and effects) interrupts things as the band goes from the song’s B-section to its chorus. The third time the B-section around, Levin changes things around by throwing in some tribal-sounding drumming before shifting back into gear for the final choruses.
“Ime” sounds like its going to veer into early Chili Pepper-esque funk at first, but Levin’s Motown-esque drum beat nips that in the bud, while Yuki’s lead vocal obliterates further Motown comparisons and Miyaji tosses in some modern rock guitar noises for additional texture.
“Mekumori”, the second of the Maeda/Miyaji songwriting collaborations, returns the band to mid-tempo 12/8 time, but with songwriting and playing that sounds both familiar and new at the same time. While not a fast rocker, the song itself is quite anthemic, and allows Miyaji to take flight with a tasteful extended guitar solo.
It’s safe to suggest that The Husky’s EP represents a considerable and major musical progression for Yuki Maeda. The EP allows her to come further out of her old shell, forging a new musical background that compliments her distinctive and instantly recognizable vocals. Hopefully, the next recordings we hear from Yuki Maeda will be a follow-up release from The Husky rather from yet another new band. Unless Whiteberry reunites, of course.
Five out of five stars.
