While English bands were busy crafting their interpretation of American blues, the Shadows of Knight “re-added a Chicago touch” to the Brit sound. Dubbed “blues-punk,” the result was a high-energy mix of Chicago meets London in a back alley garage. Lead singer Jim Sohns could snarl like Howlin’ Wolf and move like Mick Jagger, a wicked combination guaranteed to generate pubescent pandemonium.
Step back while we loudly ’n proudly chronicle the mighty Shadows’ pre-Dunwich days with a newly discovered reel from 1965! It’s a live set recorded at the legendary Cellar teen club in Arlington Heights IL, showcasing our boys’ obvious influences; Stones, Kinks, Link & more. Aggressive performances, unseen photos & detailed liner notes all aid in unraveling the early-edition history of the Shadows of Knight’s wild, R&B-injected ride!
Until now, little has been written about the Shadows of Knight’s Pre-Dunwich days. For sure, no recordings have surfaced from the period prior to “Gloria” taking hold on the hit parade. But back in Chicago’s north-west suburbs, one year earlier, they were already #1; at least with the clamoring teens that packed The Cellar club in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Norm Gotsch was a founding member of the Shadows of Knight; and along with Warren Rogers, one of the group’s original guitarists. He was responsible for recording the Shadows of Knight live set that makes up this raw ‘n’ alive archival release. Norm, along with Rogers, was also there from the band’s inception. Here he helps unravel the Shadows of Knight’s rarely-documented early history!
01. Not Fade Away
02. Money (That's What I Want)
03. You Really Got Me
04. Introducing The Band
05. Carol
06. Rawhide
07. Memphis
08. Break Time
09. It's All Right
10. Heart Of Stone
11. All Day And All Of The Night
12. I'm A King Bee
13. Louie Louie
14. (Get Your Kicks On) Route 66
By Jason Ankeny & Bruce Eder from AMG Mike Gibbins spent a decade, from 1965 through 1975, as the drummer for the Iveys and their better-known successor group, Badfinger - that alone made him one of the more visible musicians to emerge from what might be called the British Invasion's "third wave," out of the orbit of the Beatles' Apple Records. He was one of two members of the group left behind following a pair of tragic suicides, and he led reorganized versions of "Badfinger" into the 1980s and beyond, often in competition with fellow surviving member Joey Molland. Born Michael George Gibbins in Swansea, Wales, in 1949, he grew up in a crowded household that included six older sisters - he later claimed he took up drumming just so he could be heard. Actually, he was a natural drummer, responding to rhythms and generating them on anything that came into his hands, enough so that his father got him his first drum kit when Mike was 14. He passed through various local groups, including the Planets, the Club Four, and the Misfits, over the next few years.
01. Heavy Weather (Gibbins)
02. To The River (Gibbins)
03. Listen To Me (Gibbins)
04. Sad The Clown (Gibbins)
05. Dead Ratz (Warsing/Chapman/Gibbins)
06. The Golden One (Gibbins)
07. Dream Harder (Gibbins)
08. Love Is Lookin' Over Me (Gibbins)
Mike Gibbins - Vocals, Drums, Piano
Paul Chapman - Guitar (5, 7)
Rick Warsing - Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Bass
Rick Weidley - Electric Violin (1, 3)
Ron Griffiths - Lead Vocal (4)
A decade into their career, the two founding members of Austin, Texas-based White Denim -- singer/guitarist James Petralli and bassist Steven Terebecki -- sit on a body of work that can be variously described as nothing short of eclectic. Their six albums have brought waves of critical acclaim and positive attention. Their frenetic and inspired live shows have brought absolute giddy proclamations from fans and journalists. Phrases like "true rock and roll saviors" has been thrown around quite a bit as journalists ecstatically leave the sweaty confines of a White Denim show basking in the glow of a knockout show.
True to the craft of the trade, Petralli and Terebecki kept the band together a couple of years ago after two of their prominent members left to join Leon Bridges' band. Instead of using the lineup shuffle to reassess or move onto other projects, they reconvened and soldiered on with 2016's gloriously fun Stiff, an album that solidified the band's sprawling sound and turned enough heads to allow a tune to be featured in an advertisement for Nintendo Switch.
Two years later, they're back with Performance, a nine-track collection that was put together with drummer Conrad Choucroun and keyboardist Michael Hunter. It's a no-frills recording that plays to the band's strengths while reminding listeners just why they're so damn good in the first place.
They were arguably the first all-female rock band of importance.
The five-member Ace of Cups was based in San Francisco at the height of the Haight, when the neighborhood in the ’60s was known for its outsider art and hippie culture. They performed with such acts as Quicksilver Messenger Service, Country Joe and the Fish and Jefferson Airplane.
Bill Graham picked them to open for a then-new group called the Band, and Jimi Hendrix, upon returning to England, sang their praises (“I heard some groovy sounds last time in the States, like this girl group, Ace of Cups”).
Original and openly feminist, the act never scored a record deal.
Until now.
Today, with each of the women of Ace of Cups in her 70s, the band has been re-discovered. This month the act released its self-titled debut album via High Moon Records.
“This is a dream deferred,” says Denise Kaufman, who plays guitar, bass and harmonica and has written much of the group’s material.
“It’s magical,” adds guitarist Mary Ellen Simpson, who is simultaneously celebrating another grandchild.
Adds longtime fan Jackson Browne, “I’ve been waiting 45 years for the debut.”
The five original Cups — Kaufman, Simpson, Diane Vitalich, Mary Gannon and Marla Hunt (Hunt is not involved now) — met amid the haze of Haight-Ashbury on New Year’s Eve in 1966. Then in their late teens or early 20s, they were in school or held clerical day jobs.
Gannon, a former Miss Monterey, was working in an all-night doughnut shop, Simpson was studying art at a city college and Kaufman was employed at Fantasy Records, the label famous for its association with Creedence Clearwater Revival. But their passion was making music, and once they merged, they would often practice in Fantasy’s upstairs studio. Eventually, they landed a manager and started getting gigs in venues like the Avalon and the Fillmore.
Their songs upended the “It Must Be Him” sentiments they grew up hearing and boast lyrics like, “There are a whole lotta people tryin’ to mess with your mind.” They were soon part of the fabric of their place and time. None more so than Kaufman, who dropped out of UC Berkeley (where she was arrested in the free-speech protests) at 18, and temporarily hopped on Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters bus. At various points, she was apparently the focus of many a famous male’s life. (Hint: Check out the current biographies of Paul Simon and Jann Wenner)
But the summers of love eventually ended, and by 1972, the Ace of Cups’ moment had passed.
“I like to say we faded away,” says drummer Vitalich.
What followed were their version of normal lives: relationships, babies and geographical changes — or, in the words of Gannon, “a lot of hookups and wrong choices.”
Simpson returned to school and eventually became a substance abuse and mental health specialist. Gannon also went back to college and got a degree in education. Vitalich cleaned houses three days a week, and Kaufman, who was married briefly and gave birth to a daughter, moved part time to Kauai, where she started an organic farm, which is still operating, and with six local women opened a private school for kindergartners to 12th graders. She later became a yoga instructor, and her celebrity clientele has included Madonna, Quincy Jones and Jane Fonda.
01. Introduction: There’s a Record Being Made
02. Feel Good
03. Pretty Boy
04. Fantasy 1&4
05. Circles
06. We Can’t Go Back Again
07. The Well (feat. Bob Weir)
08. Taste of One
09. Mama’s Love
10. Simplicity
11. Feel It in the Air
12. Interlude: Transistor
13. Stones
14. Interlude: Baby from the Forest of Knolls
15. Life in Your Hands (feat. Taj Mahal)
16. Macushla/Thelina
17. As the Rain (feat. Peter Coyote)
18. Interlude: Daydreamin’
19. On the Road
20. Pepper in the Pot (feat. Buffy Sainte-Marie)
21. Interlude: Breath
22. Indian Summer
23. Grandma’s Hands
24. Medley (The Hermit / The Flame Still Burns / Gold and Green / Living in the Country)
25. Outroduction: It’s Always Safe…
26. Music
