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Post by Steven H Christ on Aug 21, 2008 4:34:06 GMT -5
It is written, motherfucker:
14:3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
14:4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
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Post by yardbird on Sept 17, 2008 17:23:37 GMT -5
Due to health issues, the two Ravens gigs scheduled for this autumn had to be cancelled. On the positive side, the band has 75% of their new album complete.
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Post by strangevictrola on Oct 9, 2008 18:47:49 GMT -5
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Post by bradx on Oct 10, 2008 16:49:40 GMT -5
great article. nice, easy read.
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Post by dixiegrrl on Oct 11, 2008 0:27:31 GMT -5
aw, gee thanks! glad ya dug it, Brad. yep, that be me who penned that. props to Strange-o fer posting that link...
in fact, just back from a coupla weeks hanging around the Saxony, eavesdropping on the Ravens' recording.... that next album is gonna be a fuggin' mack truck! way more confident, much more aggressive than Noisy Boys. Five tunes old ones reworked originally for a performance... Mary Jane, Dum Doovey, Taken All I Can, and the other two I forget right now... but all boiled down to a rawness that sounds like one chord punk at times with a heavy dollop of Velvet U kinda distortion... urgent, compelling... can't wait to hear the whole thing!
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Post by strangevictrola on Oct 13, 2008 15:25:51 GMT -5
aw, gee thanks! glad ya dug it, Brad. yep, that be me who penned that. props to Strange-o fer posting that link... in fact, just back from a coupla weeks hanging around the Saxony, eavesdropping on the Ravens' recording.... that next album is gonna be a fuggin' mack truck! way more confident, much more aggressive than Noisy Boys. Five tunes old ones reworked originally for a performance... Mary Jane, Dum Doovey, Taken All I Can, and the other two I forget right now... but all boiled down to a rawness that sounds like one chord punk at times with a heavy dollop of Velvet U kinda distortion... urgent, compelling... can't wait to hear the whole thing! They're recording another album? How do you know them? You were at the studio? Tell us more. And I second Brad's observation. Very good story.
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Post by dixiegrrl on Oct 13, 2008 22:43:49 GMT -5
They're recording another album? How do you know them? You were at the studio? Tell us more. And I second Brad's observation. Very good story. glad ya dug the story! it was a toughie to write considering it was due the week they canceled their shows... I was sooo bumming! right after my deadline they decided to spend their time recording instead of rehearsing... the band was sounding so fuggin hot that it would have been a waste to NOT change course... the buzz line, the universe wanted 'em to make another record... and this one is all about showing how the first one wasn't a fluke. I know 'em thru Will Shade who intro'ed me to Michael Brassard... of course in writing that story, I got to know them even better... I had promised to see 'em if they played... bought my ticket before the shows were canceled. instead of eating the plane fare, I was first enlisted to shoot still photos then a video for Rollerland as well as footage for a doc... just as I was getting started, Mr. Dixie took a spill down the infamous elevator shaft at the Saxony, broke his hip in three places. we stayed in Plattsburgh by another week before we could fly back down south. He's on the mend, doing well. while we were stranded, the whole Ravens clan were very supportive, like family. even tho the circumstances sucked, we got to be privy to two weekends of recording... finished up the last of the music beds and started in on some sweetening overdubs and vocals before they'll mix everything at the Saxony... this record's going down a whole lot faster than the first, but I think that's got as much to do with the musicians' growing confidence as well as the tight schedule forced by Will's and Mike's departures in early Nov. Lemme add, I just love these guys so much, how hard they rock, the impish joy they bring to the project, their gratitude to get a second go-round and how they welcome any attention from their new young fans... the love they have for each other is palpable. you can hear it in the music. balls on uncompromising performances of sharp, strong songs augmented by some ugly snarly tones... it's been a huge treat to be associated with each and every one of them.
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Post by Erik4-A on Oct 20, 2008 12:55:19 GMT -5
OWCH Dix! I hope Mr. Dixie gets better soon. I hope you are well too. Things have been busy for me lately, so I don't post much anymore. Hopefully in the months to come I might have a smidge more time.
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Post by yardbyrd on Oct 24, 2008 20:40:38 GMT -5
nice review
FROM BLITZ MAGAZINE'S WEB SITE:
THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME
By Michael McDowell CDs - NEW RELEASES NOISY BOYS! THE SAXONY SESSIONS -Mike And The Ravens (Zoho)
When the protagonists of the new wave/punk movement of the mid-1970s first professed interest in the pioneering beat and garage bands that had inspired them, the sense of reverence and adoration afforded those earlier visionaries was, in some respects, ironic. At that time, a mere decade had separated the achievements of the two camps. But because that which transpired in the interim (namely the hippie and Woodstock eras) was largely anathema to each group’s mission statement, successfully building the bridge between the two groups was likened to rescuing the Titanic from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.
How much more, then, is such triumph to be cherished with the half century that now separates the work of those founding fathers from the present day. Given the alarmingly high mortality rate amongst rock and roll pioneers, surviving legends today are rightfully afforded accolades of the highest order.
But Northfield, Vermont’s Mike And The Ravens (Mike Brassard - lead vocals, rhythm guitar; John “Bo” Blodgett - lead guitar; Stephen Blodgett - bass, rhythm guitar; Brian Lyford - guitars, bass, backing vocals; Peter Young - drums) are more than survivors. They are answered prayer. For not only have they persevered and endured, they continue to triumph at a level that far exceeds expectations.
Noisy Boys! The Saxony Sessions (named for the Rouses Point, New York studio in which it was recorded) is an astounding body of new and original material that has earned high praise from such peers as the Creation’s Eddie Phillips, the Misunderstood’s Rick Brown and the Monks’ Eddie Shaw to such second generation admirers as Tell-Tale Hearts cofounder and Ugly Things publisher Mike Stax (who penned the sleeve notes for this collection).
To be certain, each of those artists developed their respective musical personae by defying convention and developing a strong and unique identity. And Mike And The Ravens (who changed their name from Mike And The Throbs due to the Blodgett brothers’ professed admiration for Edgar Allen Poe’s January 1845 poem, The Raven) initially made their own mark prior to the debuts by any of those aforementioned students of their work via a series of 45s released in the early 1960s on the Plattsburgh, New York-based Empire label; presently available (along with other rare archival material) on a two-CD collection released in 2005 on Bacchus Archives.
Whereas surviving legends are upon occasion afforded the benefit of the doubt when current endeavors to sustain their initial momentum fall short of expectations, no such apologies are necessary in the slightest in this instance. Noisy Boys! The Saxony Sessions is every bit the landmark for 2008 that the Monks’ Black Monk Time was for 1966.
From the opening bars of Stephen Blodgett’s Roller, Roller Rollerland!, (which the band had frequently performed live in 1962 and which was covered the following year by Wild Bill Kennedy And The Twiliters), Mike And The Ravens herein hit the ground running. Although the passion and ambition of their professed original inspirations (including Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent, Link Wray and such mutual admirers as the Sonics, Velvet Underground and the aforementioned Monks) still fuels their creative muse, make no mistake about it. The vision chronicled herein is truly their own.
That vision is borne of equal parts of legacy, perseverance and tragedy. Perseverance because it was a work three years in the making, undertaken upon their reformation in 2005. Tragedy because of an unplanned hiatus while lead vocalist Mike Brassard battled a disease that affected his ability to speak.
And legacy, because with his vocal prowess now intact, Brassard and his colleagues have put a remarkable spin on their auspicious beginnings that neither defers to faded glories nor holds itself accountable to the expectations of others. To that effect, Rockin’ With Mrs. Benoit tells the tale of a Mary Kay Letourneau-like saga that may (or may not) be based more upon third person observation in the first person narrative rather than braggadocio tempered by hindsight. That the latter alternative can sustain viability in 2008 is due in no small part to its rollicking execution, best described as Dave Edmunds tackling a medley of the Rutles’ Get Up And Go and the Rationals’ Look What You’re Doing To Me Baby.
Likewise, Catfight offers a tougher take on Ray Sharpe’s Linda Lu, showcasing perhaps a semi-autobiographical retrospective about the pitfalls of the self-imposed caste system of youth (with the protagonist seeking solace in an In My Room-like fashion by listening to Marvin Gaye recordings). And with Easty (and its rapid 4/4 maracas-tinged delivery, complete with Route 66-inspired laundry list of geographical landmarks), it is easy to see where the Chocolate Watchband (and in turn the Tell-Tale Hearts) derived a key component of their inspiration.
The most interesting stops along this journey include Once I Was A Dancing Bear (which unnervingly replicates the groundbreaking reverb of the late Ellas “Bo Diddley” McDaniel’s Bring It To Jerome and Say Man before segueing into a straight-ahead admonishment of the cavalier life style in Who Will Love You with the oxymoronic schematic abandon that echoes that which highlights the final bars of the Young Rascals’ It’s Wonderful and Pink Floyd’s Bike) and the Monks-like rave up, Noisy Boys Too Stupid For The Radio, which pays homage to such unlikely chart toppers as Herman’s Hermits’ I’m Henry VIII, I Am and Claude King’s Wolverton Mountain while highlighting their own roadblocks en route to the large scale commercial success that has continued to elude them.
To be sure, that such a goal has remained out of their reach has been a mixed blessing. With large scale success almost inadvertently comes compromise. Yet if Noisy Boys! The Saxony Sessions is any indication, Mike And The Ravens are instead an inspiration and (even more so) an original. We are truly privileged to still have them among us.
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Post by yardbyrd on Mar 29, 2009 3:11:03 GMT -5
Mike & the Ravens have finished their second album (the first was named by Chuck Eddy, senior editor at "Billboard" and author of the hilarious "Stairway To Hell" to his Top 100 albums of 2008) and that will be out this summer on Zoho Roots... it's called "No Place For Pretty"... In the meantime, check out what Mike and Steve have been up to in Helsinki: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCyR_vJqYBg
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Post by yardbyrd on Mar 30, 2009 5:39:04 GMT -5
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Post by yardbyrd on Aug 28, 2009 15:42:00 GMT -5
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Post by yardbyrd on Sept 1, 2009 12:29:23 GMT -5
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Post by bradx on Sept 1, 2009 16:38:14 GMT -5
i dont see the term "grandpa rock" used at all in those reviews!
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Post by yardbyrd on Sept 2, 2009 8:52:59 GMT -5
from: www.thisisbooksmusic.com/?s=Mike%20&%20the%20Ravens Last year in my column, I had stated in reference to their debut album: “Expect to hear rockabilly played with the same freedoms of 16 year olds discovering the wonders of “three chords and the truth”. Young rock bands need to stop what they’re doing and take lessons from Mike & The Ravens” Mike & The Ravens are back sounding as sleazy as ever, but this time around they’re including a few more R&B elements to create a sound that is even grittier than before, while still retaining the true spirit of rock’n'roll. If fans enjoyed Noisy Boys! The Saxony Sessions, they will find more to like with No Place For Pretty (Zoho Roots) , which has the band digging deep and getting sexy with their music, and I mean a rock’n'roll sexy. There’s the passion and swagger of their rockabilly, a soothing quality in their blues, and it’s just balls out music that is too powerful to sit still with. Mike & The Ravens are a band that Rev. Horton Heat would easily bow down to, and are probably more punk in spirit than anything that the mainstream dares to call punk rock. Get in the garage, lube up, and get ready to wiggle nastily. No Place For Pretty will be released on September 8th and can be pre-ordered through CD Universe.
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