The Edgar Broughton Band – Wasa Wasa

June 25th, 2009

The Edgar Broughton Bands’ debut album, Wasa Wasa, laid down the blueprint of progressive-anarcho-agit-freakrock for which this criminally underrated band would become known.

edgar broughton band - wasa wasa

The then trio of Rob ‘Edgar’ Broughton, Steve Broughton and Arthur Grant – who had built up a following in their hometown of Warwick (just down the road from the HFoS hub) with a fourth member, Victor Unitt, under the name the Edgar Broughton Blues Band – had signed to EMI’s prog rock label Harvest in December of 1968, following a move to the Notting Hill Gate area of London. It was here that they became a part of the Ladbroke Grove scene, a frantic haze of underground rock, left-wing and anarchist politics, illicit substances, and incredible hairiness. In July of 1969, Wasa Wasa was unleashed.

Howlin Rain Album Review

May 28th, 2009

A Head Full of Mescaline and a Gut Full of Jack

Howlin Rain, the 2006 debut album by the San Franciscan band of the same name, is like the return to civilisation of an old friend who has spent a week wandering California’s Death Valley, with nothing for company other than a guitar, a quart of Jack Daniels and a boot-heel full of mescaline.

howlin rain album cover

Yes indeed, setting aside an inveterate prejudice of this writer and breaking the cardinal rule within the HFoS camp, we once again take tentative steps into the often seizure-inducing territories of “modern music”. But hang on just one ruddy minute there. It appears that in our eagerness (honest) to sample some of this so-called “modern music”, we’ve caused a Doctor Who-style rift in time and space and landed right back in the altogether more pleasing era of the early-70s.

The Rolling Stones – C*cksucker Blues

May 25th, 2009

The story behind the rather radio-unfriendly Rolling Stones song, ‘Cocksucker Blues’ – sometimes referred to as ‘Schoolboy Blues’ – is slightly more interesting than the purposely offensive curio itself.

mick jagger circa 1972

In 1970, between the releases of Let it Bleed and Sticky Fingers, the Rolling Stones, looking to go it alone and handle their own business affairs, finished with both their record company Decca and their manager Allen Klein. The contract with Decca required the band to deliver one more single.

‘Cocksucker Blues’ was the result.

classic rock, song reviews, the blues

Jethro Tull – This Was

February 11th, 2009

This Was is the 1968 debut album by the mighty Jethro Tull, the legendary prog unit led by the charismatic and Catweazle-like Ian Anderson, who like Roy Wood remains a largely unsung and forgotten hero of the songwriting fraternity. Unfortunately it is also their weakest album. Well, the weakest up until the atrocities they saw fit to unleash throughout the musically bereft 80s.

this was - jethro tull album cover

It’s safe to say that Jethro Tull have been through many a line-up, right up until the present day which still sees them touring albeit in a very different guise to when this album was recorded. However, throughout these changes there has been the one constant factor: the aforementioned Ian Anderson. Anchor, flautist, harmonica-monkey and most importantly, the singer-songwriter – the other stalwart, Martin Barre, wouldn’t join until the following album, Stand Up, their first stone-cold classic. But why didn’t This Was make the grade?

album reviews, prog rock, the blues