Over the last two months, Steven Hyden of Grantland has been offering his take on a part of rock and roll history that often goes overlooked by music connoisseurs: successful mainstream rock. Noting that there’s nothing more to be learned by reexamining the career path of the Velvet Underground or once again rehashing the history of punk rock – all stories that have been more than twice-told – Hyden posits that the best way to analyze rock and roll’s slow retreat from the mainstream is to take account of those rock bands that thrived on a widespread basis.
In his Winners’ History of Rock & Roll, Hyden explored the career paths of Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Metallica, Linkin Park and The Black Keys and found that remaining true to your core beliefs may give you mountains of indie-credibility but there’s an element of compromise that’s inextricable from finding a wider, nationwide audience. By the conclusion of his series, Hyden somewhat leaves open the question of whether a true rock and roll band can find success in the same manner as those in the Seventies (possible but highly unlikely).
For a band like Vintage Trouble, a climate where something approximating mainstream rock still existed would work to their benefit. Tipping their hat to history without becoming its slavish adherents, Vintage Trouble maintains a vintage look, their suits a relic of an era when showmen dressed the part, and revels in a vintage style.
On The Bomb Shelter Sessions, their full length debut, the Los Angeles based quartet Vintage Trouble revives the type of rhythm and blues normally found within the grooves of well-oiled vinyl LPs. On Blues Hand Me Down and Total Strangers, they meld Jackie Wilson’s exuberance with southern-style bluesy-funk, strut proudly on Still And Always Will and wring every smoky chord out of Not Alright By Me (a smoldering soul burner) and Nobody Told Me. You can forgive them for following a song entitled Nancy Lee with one called Gracefully early in the album due to Run Outta You, the lengthy old-school blues workout that closes the album on a resonant note. It’s an album for another era that stands out for its authenticity.
While one thing to listen to Vintage Trouble, it’s a completely different experience to see them live. Lead singer Ty Taylor works up a proper soulman sweat, dripping perspiration and charisma as he whirls around the stage in a controlled maelstrom of frontman fury. One moment he’s busting out dance moves like he’s Prince or James Brown, the next he’s gripped in the moment and belting out his sweat-soaked soul with the passion of the Stax-Volt greats. In contrast, guitarist Nalle Colt, bassist Richard Danielson and drummer Rick Barrio Dill, who often plays his kit while standing behind it, sway and groove like nattily-clad Texas sidewinders.
Shyness will never be an issue for Taylor. One of the brashest frontmen, Taylor has no qualms about bringing it as close to the fans as he can get. At last year’s South By Southwest Festival, Taylor simply overwhelmed the crowd during Vintage Trouble’s early afternoon set at the Paste Magazine showcase at The Stage at 6th. In the midst of an Isley Brothers-quality gospel-soul offering, Taylor waded through the crowd and perched himself on a table in the midst of the crowded bar. With revivalist flair, Taylor quickly had the room in his thrall and literally on their knees in rock and roll penitence while he served as their spiritual guide. This paled in comparison to Vintage Trouble’s opening set for The Who at Madison Square Garden where Taylor descended from the stage, paraded past many befuddled concert-goers as he wended his way towards the middle of the stadium and belted out a song from the concert floor.
No matter that there may no longer be a mainstream rock audience worth targeting, it seems like a sure thing that Vintage Trouble will strike a chord with those who still like a little rhythm in their blues and a little soul in their singers.
OFFRAMPS AND REST STOPS
THEY AREN’T EXACTLY doing it singlehandedly but Foxygen, another California band, is doing an admirable job of keeping a whole different type of classic rock alive. On Take The Kids Off Broadway, their 2012 debut, Foxygen – Jonathan Rado and Sam France – cribbed from nearly every classic trope that felt right: glam rock, acid rock, psychedelic rock, things-Zappa-would-approve-of rock, Ziggy Stardust rock, garage rock in such an invigorating manner that the need to refer to it as derivative just makes the whole process feel cheap and dirty. On one of Broadway’s epic tracks, Teenage Alien Blues, Foxygen seamlessly welds The Doors’ Light My Fire to The Rolling Stones’ Get Off Of My Cloud with the result being ten minutes of briskly psychedelic bliss.
On We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace & Magic, Foxygen dips a ladle even deeper into the classic rock stewpot. Drawing impassioned from the early-era Rolling Stones, Rado and France mesh Under My Thumb with Elvis Presley’s Suspicious Minds and come up with the loping On Blue Mountain. They pay homage to Tony Bennett’s signature tune on San Francisco while taking the piss out of the sentiment by proclaiming that they’re born in L.A. The cheekiness pales in comparison to No Destruction, in which France lazily warbles “there’s no need to be an asshole, you’re not in Brooklyn anymore” with Malkmusian (that’s the adjectivication of Malkmus) disaffectation over a loping Waiting On A Friend beat. There are wild-eyed hippie-folk sing-alongs, measured Link Wray crawls, Shakedown Street digressions from out of left field, pacific Velvet Underground reveries, Beatles-like harmonies and Rocky Horror weirdness, sometimes all in the same song. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace & Magic is simply aural candy and it should be Halloween every day.
MUCH LIKE LIQUID spreads out into cool and interesting shapes when flattened between two pieces of glass, Unknown Mortal Orchestra manages to get a unique quality of psychedelic guitar rock by flattening the sound. It’s a strange but potent way of getting the expansive effect of Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd without splurging on the audio quality. On II, their recently released sophomore effort, UMO finds better uses for the ghostly voice of lead singer Ruban Nielson than on their 2011 self-titled debut, adding a slightly mournful tone into From The Sun. What remains UMO’s focal point though is Nielson’s guitar tone and the hand cranked sounds of the rhythm section of Jake Portrait and Riley Geare. Where psychedelic rock was once thrilling lo-fi because the recording equipment wasn’t up to the task of capturing the sounds in the studio, Unknown Mortal Orchestra recaptures the trippy reverb and spacey guitars with startling clarity.
For those that recognize the name Richard Swift without having to consult The Shin’s Wikipedia page (or Foxygen’s for that matter – Swift produced 21st Century), you might be well served to check out Matthew E. White’s 2012 release Big Inner.
