Nude Beach - II [2012]

A little over a week ago I had the pleasure of seeing the Men in Chicago. It was great show, which involved my being inadvertently crowdsurfed for a good 90 seconds or so ("let me the fuck down!"). But since the Men are pretty well-hyped as of late -- get their new album, Open Your Heart, on Sacred Bones -- I'll write about their fellow New Yorker tourmates Nude Beach. They bring the melody and songwriting and punch you in the head with it. Easy-to-hear sonic influences would be Let It Be-era Replacements, Springsteen, and Big Star, and maybe a little Tom Petty (in a good way). As far as current bands go, you'll probably like these guys if you're into the Men or Kurt Vile/The War on Drugs. Sounds good right? So hit play and download this, or buy an LP.

Nude Beach bandcamp

Buy II at Katorga Works -- they've also got great records by Brown Sugar, Hoax, Rational Animals, Creem, Pop. 1280, Tenement, Crazy Spirit, and many more.

P.S. Somebody taped the Men's set, so enjoy it here:

MC5 - High Time [1971]

In honor of the passing of MC5 bassman Michael Davis, I give you their third and final 'regular' album, High Time.  I won't say too much about it, but this is the Five so you should be getting this regardless. It's probably their best overall, though obviously Kick Out the Jams gets points for being a live thing. But the production on this record is so good and full, I think I have to say it's my favorite. 'Future/Now' gets pretty psyched-out, but mostly they've got some real strong, turned-to-11 r&b sounds going on here; I honestly have a hard time seeing how High Time, judged on its actual merits (the sound and the songs, and ignoring the commercial hindrances presented by saying "motherfuckers" on a record and the whole White Panther Party thing), could not have been successful. These songs are a perfect fit for the radio sounds of 1971, and they'd been pioneering this stuff, yet success eluded them. The Man had it in for them I tell ya.

I prefer side 2 on this record but the whole thing is good.

By the way, does anybody know if the Five's performance at the 1968 DNC in Chicago (everyone else scheduled to play, besides the Five and Phil Ochs, chickened out) was properly recorded? All I have ever seen from their show is this (soundless) clip supposedly taken by the Department of Defense:

Discogs link for CDs and LPs
They don't know 'coz they're stuck in the past