Sarah Ragsdale Presents Lovely Escapism in ‘This Kiss’

These days, the world is a dark, scary place. CNN alerts spike anxiety every two seconds, and sometimes even merely waking up in the morning and turning on the news is nerve-wracking. Unsurprisingly, most people find solace in music; it’s impossible to feel nervous or panicked when listening to a fun, upbeat, wholly positive tune – even if it’s just for a minute or two.

New Jersey-by-way-of-Baltimore songstress Sarah Ragsdale‘s new single, “This Kiss” is exactly the salve needed to forgo those terrible worries for a few fleeting moments. Dubbing her unique, bouncy-piano style “Ragstime,” she recalls (sometimes literally) pucker-focused songs of the past like Betty Everett’s “The Shoop Shoop Song” and Hall & Oates’ “Kiss on My List” in this wholesome ode to love. Even the video for the song (below) extends those feel-good vibes as Ragsdale tours around Baltimore inspiring townies to bop along with her cheerful melody.

“Life is like one big romance. This collection of songs is about that romantic story called life, and the ups and downs that come along with it,” Ragsdale says regarding her new album, Whimsical Romance, out this fall. Not sure what these “downs” are going to sound like, but “This Kiss” is definitely one big “up.”

First I Will Save Your Soul, Then I Will Destroy You: Remembering Non-Dead Works of George Romero

The loss of George A Romero earlier this year robbed us one of the great American filmmakers. But everyone used the opportunity to only discuss the Dead films.

It’s not surprising. Few filmmakers can make a movie as good as Night of the Living Dead, especially on their first try. Even fewer can create a sequel that’s better than the original and inspire a genre that’s still popular decades later. Romero, barring maybe John Cassavetes and Orson Welles, is the most influential independent filmmaker ever. His films have inspired multiple generations of gore-hounds and satirists.

But, despite his influence, Romero’s filmography is not discussed outside of his zombie films. Romero waited years between Night, Dawn, Day, and Land of the Dead, but was not inactive. He tried to break free of his constraints and used his vision to subvert other movie monsters.

Almost everything in Romero’s filmography predicted audience trends and tastes by decades. He was the first filmmaker to mock modern society’s obsession with fantasy. He’s the one who first turned vampires into moody, broken teens.  Romero seemed to know where his audience was going long before they actually arrived there.

In memory of Romero, I’ve chosen three films that showcase Romero’s ability to subvert horror tropes even further than he did in some of his zombie films.

The Crazies (1973)

After Night of the Living Dead, Romero tried to break away from the horror genre. He directed a romantic comedy (There’s Always Vanilla) and then an occult film that was more a portrait of being a bored housewife in the 1970s (Season of the Witch).

The Crazies was Romero’s attempt to create a spiritual successor to Night of the Living Dead, if only to recapture his commercial standing. But Romero took the opportunity to subvert the expectations he had previously set. The Crazies is nominally about a plague that turns people into homicidal maniacs. It opens with a husband burning his family alive. But the film quickly changes into something that many people, horrified by the zombies eating human organs, missed about Night. The main enemy is not the flesh eating dead. It’s the people reacting to it, wondering how they will function in an increasingly volatile situation.

In The Crazies, the main antagonist seems to be the military descending on the small town of Evans City, Pennsylvania. The army automatically treats the citizens as the enemy, eager to bomb them lest they spread the plague. We later find out that the plague was caused by an untested military bio-weapon (called “Trixie”) that ended up in the city’s reservoir. So, it’s not so much that the people in charge are looking out for the greater good, but rather trying to cover up their mistake. Some people, including Vietnam veteran David, his pregnant girlfriend Judy, and their friend Clank try to escape town.

Most of the action isn’t centered around people trying to escape from the infected people, but from the army’s activities as they try to quarantine Evans City. There are several tense moments that recall Invasion of the Body Snatchers as the town’s people try to sneak past the soldiers. One character may have be immune, but keeps it a secret after his friends are killed. And there are scenes of soldiers taking money from some of the infected people they just killed. There are also scenes of a doctor (Richard France, who also appeared in Dawn of the Dead) trying desperately to cure the disease, only to be frustrated by the bureaucracy he encounters along the way. He finds what may be a cure, but has difficulty reaching anyone to tell of his discovery and, when he leaves the lab, is mistaken for another infected person. Paranoia is the true destructive force in the film.

That’s not to suggest the disease is harmless. We see infected people burn their families, attempt to rape their daughters, and show absolutely no-self preservation. But, unlike Night of the Living Dead, they are not remorseless killing machines. The rapist, for example, hangs himself after realizing what he’s done. And even those are infected seem to show they’re capable of making decisions. Clank, for example, fears he’s infected so he guns down soldiers so that David and Judy can escape. Clank’s actions are mad, yes, but they also raise another part of the dilemma in the film. How can you tell who is infected and who isn’t when people are already scared, confused, and willing to lash out against their fellow man?

The Crazies subverted every expectation people had of Romero. Instead of another film about people trying to survive a barrage of monsters, it’s a film about people trying to survive other people who view them as a threat – or an invading force. It didn’t do as well as Night, possibly because people weren’t ready for a film that was somehow even bleaker.

 Martin – 1978

Romero claimed that Martin was his own favorite of his works and the film received great critical notices on its release. But it is a very difficult film to find today and doesn’t get nearly the attention it deserves.

Romero didn’t create zombies. The undead had appeared in folklore for millennia. Night of the Living Dead wasn’t even the first zombie film. But Romero did reinvent them for a new generation by showing what the dead would presumably look like if they came back to life. There would be no magic spell, there would be no consciousness, and there would be no way that the zombies would recognize their former loved ones.

His reinvention of the vampire lore in Martin was meant to be the same thing. The titular Martin (John Amplas) is a teenager who is scared of sex. He doesn’t have fangs, doesn’t burn in the sunlight, and takes bites out of garlic cloves. The only evidence we have that he is in vampire is the insistence of his much older cousin Cuda (Lincoln Maazel) who says he carries the “family curse” and refers to him as “Nosferatu.”

Martin also drinks blood. Without fangs, this makes feeding more difficult. He prefers to drug his victims and then use a razor blade to slice open their wrists. He usually preys on older women, but that’s almost irrelevant. Whereas Dracula has always had a sexual power, Martin is a skinny nerd who is afraid to have sex.  He detests the fact that he has to go through with his murders, if only because it means getting close to people.

There are several curious scenes that seem to show Martin in an earlier time. Members of the clergy try to cure Martin with religious rituals. What’s actually happening is ambiguous. The scenes are shot in sepia and don’t look like anything else Martin is experiencing in the film. It leads credence to the idea that Martin’s illness is all inside his head, caused by equally insane people like Cuda.

Martin also finds himself becoming a media sensation after he calls in to a late night radio show to describe his life. He wants to dispel the rumors of vampirism, but finds himself promoting them more. The DJ even refers to him as “the count,” despite Martin’s desperate attempts to explain that the romantic aspect of vampires is a myth.

It reminded me of the corner that Romero wrote himself into with his first film. Martin was released the same year as Dawn of the Dead. A Romero zombie film was bound to receive more attention. Yet Martin was a sort of warning that Romero wanted to give. “My films are not meant to be romanticized and you shouldn’t expect anything from me,” Romero seemed to say. “I haven’t created any mythology for you to copy. In fact, my goal is to destroy the mythology you hold dear.”

Knightriders

The final film on this list is not even a horror movie. In fact, it’s not even the fantasy movie it purports to be.

After the successful Dawn of the Dead, Romero once again tried to break away from his horror background. Instead, he wanted to explore a genre that was slowly regaining popularity. Multiple Arthurian films were being released around the same time as Romero’s Knightriders. In fact, the film was released the same year as John Boorman’s Excalibur.

But Romero wasn’t interested in doing a direct adaptation of Arthurian legend. The fact that all of the jousting is done on motorcycles for Renaissance fair crowds demonstrates that. But Romero also predicted society’s obsession with undermining fantasy and the values those myths championed.

The motorcycle jousting is in the film partly due to Romero’s economy. It’s much easier to use motorcycles than it is work with horses and animal wranglers. But it was also a way for Romero to mock all of the epics Hollywood made at the time. Romero knew that the audience didn’t totally buy the fantasy. They were aware of the fact they were watching actors pretend and watching people in no real danger fight to the death. So why not use motorcycles in front of an audience? It would create the same emotional connection.

Knightriders stars Ed Harris, in his first leading role, as Billy. He is the “king” of a troupe of actors who perform jousting tournaments for sweaty tourists. (Including Stephen King and his wife Tabitha in a cameo.) Billy is wholly dedicated to Arthurian ideals of honor, but is constantly challenged for his throne by other troupe members, including Morgan (Tom Savini).

Billy’s obsession with honor is what brings about his downfall. He refuses to pay off a crooked cop, only for that officer to threaten to shut the show down and arrest members of the troupe. He refuses to work with a promoter to bring more audience to the show and ends up alienating his troupe. Billy is a man hopelessly out of touch with what his people need, and only when he relents is he treated as a hero.

It’s a tone that predicted Game of Thrones. The two properties are very different, but the tone is ultimately the same. Characters in fantasy works may talk about honor and sacrifice, but their values are going to run up against our modern world where back stabbing is the norm. People like Billy will end up broken and defeated.

Knightrider is not without its flaws. At almost two and a half hours, it’s Romero’s longest film.  The pacing doesn’t match the run time. There are moments that are more reminiscent of 1960s road movies, full of meandering shots and conversations. It’s also difficult to ascertain the motivation behind the actors. Why are they doing this? Why stick with the same code that Billy demands even though they’re clearly against it?

Still, Knightriders is Romero’s last grasp at subverting genre expectations. After this film, he moved on to more traditional movies like Creepshow. They brought him some attention but not as much as he deserved. Romero ended his career with the zombies he created, but even that lead to diminishing returns. Who knows what would have happened if audiences were able to catch up to Romero?  

REVIEW: Adam Gnade – “Life Is The Meat Grinder That Sucks In All Things”

Indie writer/musician Adam Gnade is a lot like Neutral Milk Hotel’s beautific, canonical “Oh Comely;” he makes you feel resilient and centered as life and all its context tries to beat you down. The “Oh Comely” comparison is apt, as Gnade dedicated his Do-It Yourself Guide To Fighting The Big Motherfuckin’ Sad, an indispensable literary antidepressant, to the song. Through projects both literary and otherwise, it’s clear he knows what he does well. And so it goes with Life Is The Meat Grinder That Sucks In All Things, a great new odds-and-sods LP that features one epic narrative/soundscape and a collection of solo, acoustic guitar demos.

Gnade is best when he’s finding threads in his work to connect with others and, in this, I look to his year-defining Run Hide Retreat Surrender, a real gem that was modern-day riffing on an On The Road-style cross-country trip. A song-cycle of sorts, it loosely tied together Gnade’s narratives and thoughts about a trek with friends from the West Coast to the East. But, above all, it chronicled a kind of loss of innocence, a growth, a maturation, a sensing that things change. Almost 12 years later, I still find myself turning to it, searching.

The title song on the new LP, available on Bandcamp, concerns itself (very loosely) with 9/11 and characters like Agnes McCanty whose lives touch its themes of death and rebirth. (There’s also a demo on the second half of the record about Agnes.) And, while Planet B – which provides occasional percussion, found sounds such as mattresses of TV static, and scissor-cuts of white-noise on the title track — could do more to fill the space on the 25-minute-long short-story, Gnade is the real star and holds your attention, fixated, if you give yourself over to him. Again, this sense of transition, this loss of innocence, this repetitive feeling that things change and you need to survive – it all looms large.

“This was before / before we learned to hate America / before we lost grip on the dream / before we saw the holes in the story we grew up with / before it was tough to find work,” Gnade speaks in the talking-song. “Before it got harder to get through the day / before paranoia / before doubt /  before anxiety / before compromise / before we turned on each other / before now / where it’s a new killing every day until we’re blind to it / where we’re all so spread apart / where love is stress / and work is stress / and family is stress / this was before.”

I interviewed Gnade years ago and was surprised he didn’t see himself in the tradition of spoken-word artistry, which his narrations over music echo. (His demos here, it should be noted, are rough drafts for the title piece.) His delivery and presentation are plain – often dryly spoken words, recorded simply, over found sounds or, as on the demos, repeating motifs on acoustic guitar. But the words can be enveloping. The new record is an excellent point of entry that will leave you wanting to find more. Haven’t heard of Gnade? You owe it to yourself to read between the lines and track him down.

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REVIEW: Iron & Wine – “Beast Epic”

Much pomp and circumstance has been made about Sam Beam returning in 2017 to the form of his early years.  But while Iron & Wine’s Beast Epic, out today on Sub Pop Records, is certainly a stripped-down affair compared to some of Beam’s Warner Bros. catalog, it is still a highly polished outing, with Beam’s trademark, hushed multi-tracked vocals high in the mix alongside all sorts of well-placed figures and accoutrements – backing piano, subtle percussion, weeping strings, occasional plumbs of bass. The acoustic guitar is not lost on us but this Epic is far from Appalachia. And all the better for it! Beam has recorded a tremendous record here with the new LP and, if anything, has further solidified his rightful place as a kind of modern-day Cat Stevens or Nick Drake.

Anyone expecting the nuanced Americana of Beam’s early work will smile broadly at tracks like opener “Claim Your Ghost,” which starts with him carefully counting off time, unfurls with jangly acoustic guitar, and, in its most emotionally devastating moment, cuts out everything but Beam’s voice as he intones, “The garden grows into our street / We’re holding the blossoms up high.” “The Truest Stars We Know,” all piano and finger-picked acoustics, is so fragile, it feels like it’ll evaporate before it reaches your ear.

But this not all shadows and whispers. On “About A Bruise,” Beam accompanies a sometimes-jagged, sometimes-bouncy palm-muted guitar line with shuffling percussion and excellent accents from an almost-jazzy piano. “Summer Clouds” starts with that familiar guitar line but, after a simple 1-2 drum march from a kit, pedal steel enters the frame and Beam goes right for the heart with a bridge that’s arguably the best moment on the whole record:

By the end we hold something too high to ever come back down
By the end there’s a song we will sing meant for someone else
By the end we leave somewhere too long to ever wander back
By the end we give someone too much to ever close the hand

On “Our Light Miles,” an album closer that leaves you hungering for more, Beam frequently soars into falsetto, displaying some of his finest singing to date with lyrics like “What will become of us? / Tall trees blown bare  / in the bone white snow / Nothing but night for songs / that old mouth still sucking / warm milk of summer.” Impressive stuff, indeed.

All in all, it’s a fine outing and one worthy of the canon Beam’s been building for himself all these years. If you’ve been waiting for Iron & Wine to keep delivering on the promise of records like The Creek Drank The Cradle, this is your moment.

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Soul Serenade: The Radiants, “It Ain’t No Big Thing”

Chicago has been known as a blues mecca ever since giants like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf made their way north from Mississippi seeking greater opportunity. In fact, the electrified and electrifying sound they and others developed would come to be known as Chicago Blues. But the music coming out of the Windy City was not limited to blues. Soul music giants like Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions, Jerry Butler, and Billy Stewart called Chicago home as well.

The Radiants never quite reached the level of success that the artists I mentioned above achieved but they did manage to send a few records up the charts in the 1960s. The group’s original lineup of lead vocalist Maurice McCallister, baritone Wallace Sampson, second tenor Jerome Brooks, bass singer Elzie Butler, and first tenor Charles Washington met while they were singing in the youth choir at Greater Harvest Baptist Church. Like other artists who got their start in church, the Radiants began their career singing gospel in churches but also adding in some secular R&B songs that McCallister wrote.

It wasn’t long before the Radiants abandoned gospel altogether. Before their first recording session, Washington had left the group and been replaced by McLauren Green. The group recorded demos and shopped them around but couldn’t get a bite. All of the big labels turned them down including Motown and Chess. But Chess eventually had a change of heart and signed the Radiants.

At Chess, the group was mentored by Billy Davis, one-time songwriting partner of Berry Gordy, Jr. The Radiants’ first single for the label was released in 1962. “Father Knows Best” b/w “One Day I’ll Show You” was unsuccessful everywhere with the exception of Cleveland, where it was a local hit. Chess singles “Heartbreak Society,” “Shy Guy,” and “I Gotta Dance to Keep My Baby” followed and while they all sounded like hits, none of them were. Poor promotion by the label seems to have been the culprit.

Green was drafted and he was replaced by Frank McCollum. But by 1964 the Radiants were in disarray. Things got so bad that the group actually broke up, leaving only McCallister and Sampson to form a new lineup. Leonard Caston, Jr. had been the organist at Greater Harvest and his return from the army was timely as he became the third member of the new Radiants lineup.

The Radiants

Now a trio, the Radiants released “Voice Your Choice” in late 1964. It was their biggest hit, reaching #16 on the R&B chart, and #51 on the Billboard Hot 100. The follow-up single was “It Ain’t No Big Thing” and although it failed to make the Pop chart, it reached #14 R&B. The Radiants modeled themselves after the Impressions on these records, with McCallister and Caston trading lead vocals, and employing the Impressions three-part harmony style.

Caston had his eye on a songwriting and production career and left the Radiants in 1965. James Jameson replaced him and he can be heard on the single “Baby You Got It.” That’s about the time that things got complicated. McCallister left the group shortly after the single was released and the departure of the group’s founder should have put an end to things, right? Well, no.

There was another Chess group called the Confessions and they were led by a guy named Mitchell Bullock. They recorded a single called “Don’t It Make You Feel Kinda Bad” but broke up before it was released. Davis had the idea of enlisting Bullock to work with Sampson and Jameson. When they added Caston’s brother Victor, the Radiants were a quartet again. Remember that Confessions single? Without re-recording it or changing anything Chess released it as a Radiants single.

“Don’t It Make You Feel Kinda Bad” wasn’t a big hit, only reaching #47 on the R&B chart, but the next Radiants single, “Hold On,” managed to reach #68 on the Pop chart, and #35 R&B in 1968. It would be the last chart record for the Radiants. They left Chess the following year and broke up in 1972.

McCallister went on to have some success with as part of a duo that also included former Radiant McLauren Green. They two collaborated as Maurice & Mac on a single called “You Left the Water Running” which is revered by soul music aficionados. Chess never released a Radiants album but did include several of the group’s singles on compilation albums.

Radio City With Jon Grayson & Rob Ross: Episode Twenty Six

Radio City with Jon Grayson and Rob Ross:  Twenty Six – a half year’s worth of quality reportage!

The tireless efforts of Jon and Rob mean that you have yet another episode to indulge in and absorb.  Show 26 finds Rob and Jon discussing the confounding state of politics in New York City as well as the standard weekly Washington recap; Anton Barbeau’s latest neo-psychedelic gem and the incredible (and timely, perhaps) new single from Populuxe; D.W. Dunphy’s interview with the delightful Lisa Mychols, Ted Asregadoo’s “Pop Politico” page and of course, the now-loved “In Our Heads” segment.

All this and so much more – week after week.  Because they care.

Radio City With Jon Grayson & Rob Ross: Episode Twenty Six


The podcast will be on the site as well as for subscription via iTunes and other podcast aggregators. Subscribe and let people know about Radio City, as well as Popdose’s other great podcasts David Medsker’s Dizzy Heights and In:Sound with Michael Parr and Zack Stiegler.

Popdose Premiere: Thorp Jenson, “Wake Up”

Popdose is pleased to present Richmond, VA’s Thorp Jenson on a new single from his debut album Odessa titled “Wake Up.”

Jenson said of the track, “I think ‘Wake Up’ is a bit of an outlier on the record. While it’s still rock and roll, it’s maybe a little less Americana than the rest of the album. I wanted it to be the track we opened up and got a little weird on. It has all the necessary weird ingredients: a backward guitar track that opens the song, vocals tracked through a tape echo, and your standard rock and roll bass solo.”

Described previously as a side-man guitarist in the Richmond music scene, Jenson’s present vibe mixes up early Wilco with more than a hint of The Wallflowers. Odessa features contributions from Cameron Ralston and Suzi Fischer (both with Foxygen) and Andrew Randazzo (Natalie Prass).

How did Jenson achieve the alternative sound he was aiming for on the track? “I told the band to think about the first record from Weezer when we were tracking. Not that I was thinking of Weezer when I wrote the song, but I wanted it to have that kind of drudgey push to it in the rhythm section that is part of the magic on that record.

“The song features just the core trio with Andrew Randazzo on bass and Dusty Simmons on drums. Andrew and I overdubbed the keyboard parts and I added some guitars to beef it up. There are moments though when the track strips down to just the original guitar trio. I wanted it to have some life in it, to kind of breathe and I told Adrian Olson, who I mixed the record with, to have some fun on this track and get a little weird.”

Speaking to the subject of the album in full, Jenson said of Odessa: “I wrote a lot of these songs thinking about characters…It always ends up including a part of me—you can’t get away from that—but if you’re only telling your own story, you’re kind of pigeonholing yourself.”

On the album’s title track, Jenson imagines himself a soldier returning from war to a small-town home that doesn’t quite fit the one in his memory.

The album also features a cover version of Modern English’s 1980s-era hit “I Melt With You,” which has been heavily transformed, and for a specific reason. “I hated that song growing up,” Jenson admitted. But after performing a version at a wedding, he was apparently taken by the song’s intentions if not its presentation.

Thorp Jenson’s Odessa is expected to bow in October on various digital music platforms.

ALBUM REVIEW: LARA HOPE AND THE ARK TONES, “Love You To Life”

Not what I would expect from the area of Kingston, New York (a very nice town), but Lara Hope and The Ark Tones dish up some kickin’ rockabilly on this, their second full-length album, Love You To LifeBorn from a hybrid of Lara’s former rockabilly band The Champtones, and upright bassist Matt Goldpaugh’s international psychobilly act, The Arkhams (he’s Lara’s husband), The Ark-Tones hit the ground running in 2012 and haven’t slowed down since. Lara and Matt also perform as a duo (The Gold Hope Duo), and can even be found as the country/western entertainers at the one of longest running family resorts in New York, the Rocking Horse Ranch, performing under the name Lara and the Hope’Alongs.

This collection of eleven songs gets off in a classic, big, brassy fashion with the swingin’ “Fast, Cheap Or Well Done”, with its punchy riffs and chorus and one hell of a twang – this sounds like it just walked out of 1957 but sounds crisp and modern; the title track, “Love You To Life” has that nifty bossa-nova/Tex-Mex vibe and is tight and catchy (listen to that spot-on solo!) and “‘Til The Well Runs Dry” is another kicker (great call and response vocals) and a killer sax riff.  “This Is What I’ve Got” is the head-turner – a slow, pure country ballad with a sweetly mournful fiddle and chiming pedal steel notes; “I’m The One” is the obvious “single” – a track that could have fit in between Fats Domino and Buddy Holly on radio playlists once upon a time and “Hotel Yorba” gallops along (a Johnny Cash tribute, perhaps?) – uptempo, country sweetened and again, delightfully twangy.

Call it what you want – a party album; you can twist and jive to it, etc. – it’s a musical good time.  And while I’ve never been a great fan of rockabilly revival bands (being a lifelong Elvis and Everly Brothers fan, I’m a purist), this is a damned fine gathering of real, American rock & roll – the way it was meant to be played – with fun and passion.

RECOMMENDED

Love You To Life is currently available

https://www.larahopeandtheark-tones.com/

POPDOSE EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE: DAN MIRALDI, “Love Under Fire”

Love Under Fire began as an interruption; singer-songwriter Dan Miraldi was ready to complete his fourth full-length album; the songs were written and demoed and the first single was released. But then November 9th hit, and his plans changed. He wrote his newest EP as a response to what was happening around him in the US.

“The current political climate compelled me to put my typical type of songs temporarily aside and instead write and record Love Under Fire,” Miraldi said. “I wanted to provide modern fight songs to energize people in positive ways and help them resist complacency. We live in an era where it is too easy to tune out, and let indifference and discouragement numb us.”

 

Miraldi is an NYC-based and Cleveland-born rocker. The title track, which Popdose is premiering here for you, was inspired by his desire to always be an ally for his friends in the LGBTQ community. The album continues Miraldi’s evolution in music, offering loud rock and roll with tinges of the indie-pop that’s infiltrated his sound. Though this record found Miraldi branching out beyond his comfort zone, he says, “This is not business as usual. This is not the fun-time power-pop-rock album I set out to make. Love Under Fire is the loud rock and roll record I needed to make.”

Love Under Fire will be released on Friday, September 22nd, 2017

https://www.danmiraldi.com/