In this review, we explore how The Black Crowes’ The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion may have been influenced by The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St. Released 20 years apart, both albums share a southern, bluesy, and soulful sound, with striking similarities in their pacing and musical journey. While some of us favored The Black Crowes, we all appreciated the deep connections between these two classic albums. Listen to our conversation and share your thoughts on these timeless records.
Continue readingThis Album Influenced That Album – The Rolling Stones Influenced The Black Crowes
In the upcoming episodes, we explore how one album influenced another, starting with Darren Scott’s picks of the Foo Fighters’ debut and Bad Brains’ Rock for Light. Now it’s my turn with The Black Crowes’ The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, their 1992 follow-up to Shake Your Money Maker. This album broke records with four rock number-one hits and topped the Billboard 200. Produced by George Drakoulias and The Black Crowes, its rock, blues, and southern black soul sound has always reminded me of the early Rolling Stones, especially their 1972 album Exile on Main St.. Known for its murky, party-like atmosphere, Exile on Main St. was a double album featuring blues, rock, swing, country, and gospel influences. This month, I’ll dive deeper to see if Exile on Main St. truly influenced The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion.
Continue readingReview of John Mayer – Continuum
Our pick for March 2024 was John Mayer’s third studio album, Continuum, which was released on September 12, 2006.
As sometimes happen when we share post-listening thoughts, we differed a bit on this one, with one TSC member really not liking the album, but most of us aligned on it sort of just being hhmm. Not great, not bad, just there, and potentially a great album to cut vegetables to.
Continue readingJohn Mayer – Continuum
Check out our album selection for March 2024. Continuum is Mayer’s third studio album, was released on September 12, 2006, and took about a year-and-a-half to record, which happened in New York, LA, and Memphis. It’s noted as making a departure from his pop side, transitioning into a more blues / soul vibe, and notably was produced by legendary drummer Steve Jordan, who is now the Rolling Stones’ drummer. Listen to this and get access to more episodes and content at https://thesoniccollective.com
Continue readingReview of MC5: Kick out the Jams
Get ready for a thrilling ride through music history! In the last four episodes, we’ve been grooving to the catchy tunes of one-hit wonders. But now, hold on to your seats because we’re shifting gears. Our very own music aficionado and Sonic Collective member, Darren Scott, has taken us on a journey back to the world of influential albums.
This time, we’re diving headfirst into the debut album of the incomparable Tracy Chapman. Picture this: soul-stirring lyrics, mesmerizing melodies, and a voice that’ll give you goosebumps. We’ve gathered around to dissect this musical masterpiece and explore how it still holds up today.
October 2023 saw us dive into the very first punk album of all time. It’s so the first that it wasn’t even classified as punk at the time. MC5 recorded this, their first album live and we all felt the sound recording and quality was pretty darn good considering how long ago this was done. It stands up.
But when we really got into the music, things took a bit of a turn. We enjoyed a few of the sounds, notably the title track, but found overall this album just became noisy after a couple of tracks and started to down-right irritate some of us. Scott G enjoyed it the most but the rest of us found getting through in one listen a bit of work.
That said, we’re glad we had the experience, as this was really the beginnings of punk and an entirely new sound to the world. We’ve widened our musical knowledge and scope.
Continue readingMC5 – Kick Out the Jams
This month we’re tackling an album I’ve been aware of for a long time, never listened to, but the time has come.
Kick Out the Jams by MC5 was released in February 1969 and has been classified as proto-punk. While the band formed in 1963, it took a few years for their debut album to come into form, and uniquely, it was recorded live over two nights at Detroit’s Grande Ballroom in 1968. Typically bands release a live album well into their career but MC5 uniquely opted to do so out of the gates.
Continue readingOne Hit Wonder or Not? New Radicals’ Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too
So here, it is, the second review of our One Hit Wonders round, this time listening to New Radicals’ Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too. If you haven’t listened to/read about why we picked it, check that out first.
The album was released October 16, 1998, and is essentially an album by lead singer, Gregg Alexander, who is the only person to play on all the album’s tracks. He enlisted a swath of session musicians (28) to play instruments while recording, really making this an album of hired guns. The very successful You Get What You Give charted high on most Top 40 lists around the world, then the band broke up in 1999. A second single, Someday We’ll Know, was released shortly after the band called it quits and the rest is history.
Continue readingOne Hit Wonders: New Radicals – Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too
For the next four podcast episodes we will be reviewing what are considered to be one-hit wonders. Here we are on our second of four picks with our One Hit Wonders series, looking at artists and albums that were One Hit Wonders – loosely meaning that the album had one or so big singles, then we likely never really heard from the band again. I’ve always liked the song You Get What You Give by New Radicals, bought the album when it came out, but don’t remember listening to it beyond the single, and have been listening to that single a lot recently. Then the Foo Fighters announced Josh Freese as their new drummer in May 2023, and while reading about him, I noticed he drummed on two songs from Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too by New Radicals, and decided to make this my pick for the month. – Scott Coates @ The Sonic Collective
Continue readingReview of King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King
February 2023 saw us listen to King Crimson’s debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, which was released on 10 October 1969 and hit #1 on the UK charts.We went into this with pretty high expectations being how many times we had read about this album being a major influence on bands like The Who, and cited by many rock publications as one of the best ever prog rock albums. Well… let’s just say we weren’t that wow’d and don’t really get how it has cultivated the legacy it has.
Continue readingKing Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King
For February 2023 we will listen to and share thought on King Crimson’s 1969 debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King. They have been cited by countless, legendary bands as a major influence and In the Court of the Crimson King, their debut album, noted as their best and also an inspiration to a slew of bands. Enjoy the listen ahead!
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