ABOUT ME
Surfing since February 1997
My name is Brian Currin, I live in Cape Town, South Africa and I've loved music all my life. I was born 4 days after "The Day The Music Died" according to Don McLean (You figure it out!).
I have been web surfing for a decade now. In 1997 there was no Google, Wikipedia, YouTube or MySpace. And also no ADSL! It seems unbelievable to me now that there was even life before the Internet, as computers and the Net are such an integral part of my life, both for income generation and for relaxation.
I have two sons in High School who are my pride and joy; besides them, I have two main passions in my life:
Music and
Technology. I am in the very fortunate position to be able to earn income from both of these loves. I also enjoy reading sword and sorcery novels, like David Eddings and Raymond E Feist, but I haven't found a way to get paid for that yet!
Unfortunately I have no talent in playing a musical instrument or singing (I do play a mean air guitar solo, though), so I have been collecting and cataloguing musical information since I was about 7 years old. I call myself a vagabond because I wander around the world of music picking up scraps of information from all over and everywhere... the internet, magazines, music shops, radio, TV, people, etc. I like nearly all types and genres of music. Pop, rock and roll, blues, classical, jazz, reggae... whatever, but my heart really lies with ROCK! Classic, vintage, brilliant, unforgettable R-O-C-K (and especially South African Rock).
My Top Favourite Albums And Songs of 2006
Uncut magazine released their
Top 50 Albums of 2006 very early in November already, so I thought I'd list my favourites, but it is subject to change without notice!
This is a list (in no particular order) of my top 15 favourite albums that have been released in 2006. Please note that it is not a critics choice and that there are no rules, except that I must have them in some format or other.
- LostProphets - Liberation Transmission
- Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome (Pete Seeger covers)
- Gov't Mule - High And Mighty
- Various - Return To The Dark Side Of The Moon (cover of Pink Floyd's classic album)
- The Easy Star All-Stars - Radiodread (cover of Radiohead's OK Computer)
- Various - Classic Rock: A Tribute To Led Zeppelin
- Various - Classic Rock: Tune In, Turn On, Rock Out
- The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
- The Mochines - Hire The Losers
- Hawthorne Heights - If Only You Were Lonely
- Primal Scream - Riot City Blues
- Live - Songs From Black Mountain
- Jack Hammer - TuksFM Sessions
- Taxi Violence - Untie Yourself
- The Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
And here is a list (in no particular order) of my top 30 favourite songs that were released in 2006. Again, it is not a critics choice and there are no rules, except that I must have them in some format or other.
- Yo La Tengo - Sugarcube
- Bruce Springsteen - Bring Them Home (Pete Seeger cover)
- Rocketface - Dirty
- Danko Jones - First Date
- Eagles Of Death Metal - I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)
- Whimwise - Innocence
- Gov't Mule - Mr High & Mighty
- The Deadstring Brothers - Sacred Heart
- Primal Scream - We're Gonna Boogie
- John Wetton, Scotty Page & Dweezil Zappa - Us & Them (Pink Floyd cover)
- Joe Bonamassa - Tea For One (Led Zeppelin cover)
- The Zutons - Why Won't You Give Me Your Love
- The Answer - Never Too Late
- Draining Patience - Die Binneste
- Five Horse Johnson - Ten Cent Dynamite
- Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
- Gordon's Suitcase feat Piet Botha - Riders On The Storm (The Doors cover)
- Jo Day - Princess
- Jack Hammer - Mozambique (2006 re-recording)
- Kabous Verwoed feat Piet Botha - Reno, Gauteng
- LostProphets - Rooftops
- Mountain Goats - Woke Up New
- Neil Young - Shock And Awe
- Richard Cheese - Creep (Cheesy lounge cover of the Radiohead song, with swearing intact!)
- Scott West & Sex On Sunday - Standing On The Moon
- Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars
- The Surfaris vs D4L (Party Ben) - Wipeout Taffy (mash-up)
- Taxi Violence - Jimi's Revenge
- U2 & Green Day - The Saints Are Coming (a cover of the The Skids song from 1978)
- Towers Of London - Air Guitar
- My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade
And here are some near misses, because they were released in 2005, but I only heard them for the first time in 2006.
- Deep Purple - Things I Never Said
- Wolfmother - Woman
- Tokyo Dragons - Chasing The Night
Music Researcher
I played a part in the rediscovery of
Rodriguez in 1998 (along with Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman and Craig Bartholomew) and I started the
SA Rock Digest e-mag in 1999 and was co-editor (again with 'Sugar' Segerman) for 5 years. I have been involved in compiling various compilation CDs including '
Disco Fever' (Gallo, 1999),
McCully Workshop 'Greatest Hits' (2005),
Abstract Truth 'Silver Trees & Totum' (FreshMusic, 2005) and '
Astral Daze - South African Psychedelic Rock 1968-1972' (FreshMusic, February 2006).
I have also written sleeve notes and artist biographies for various CDs including releases by
Abstract Truth,
The Radio Rats,
Jack Hammer and
McCully Workshop.
I have provided research information for the sleeve notes for CD releases from
Rodriguez,
Falling Mirror,
John Kongos, the
SA Top 40 Hits Of All-Time Volume 6 and a few others.
I have compiled Musical Family Trees (similar to Pete Frame) for
Trevor Rabin,
McCully Workshop,
Third Eye,
The Radio Rats,
Steve Louw,
Clout,
Abstract Truth,
Freedom's Children, Tidal Wave and others, some of which have been published in CD booklets.
Web Marketer
A website is only one part of creating a complete web presence. Web design is not only about having a "pretty" website, no matter how cool it looks. I assist clients with their overall
Web Marketing Strategy. Web Design, Web Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Digital Distribution, Online CD shop, Newsletters, Mailing Lists and more, are all part of a complete package that I can offer. Anybody can have a website, but I will help you to have a
web presence. I can also code
MySpace webpages so that they look similar to your official website.
Technology Consultant
I am a Technology Consultant specialising in supplying
Sony equipment (Data Projectors, LCDs & Plasmas, VAIO notebooks, Digital Cameras, DVD Video Cameras, Digital Voice Recorders and more) to Corporate Clients and Value Added Resellers in the Cape Town area. I have been involved in technology products since being an Anti-Aircraft Radar Instructor in the army in the late 70's. I have been a technology sales consultant since the early 80's and have been employed by Panasonic, AudioVision, Phonetech (agents for General Electric, Sagem, Eurocom & Bellphones) and
Sony SA in various sales, management and key account roles.
In A Mixtape Mood
I've been making mixtapes since the early 70's, using LP's, singles, cassettes and the radio as my primary sources and initially a mono tape recorder as the recording device. Now here I am, many years later, doing exactly the same thing, except now my sources include downloaded mp3s and CDs, and of course, now I use CDR's in my computer and it's called "burning", not "taping", but the principle is the same: my favourite songs compiled in the way I want. So, amazingly, my passion has remained unchanged in almost 40 years, just the technology has improved ... dramatically!
I would love to buy my mp3s legally online from the
iTunes shop, but they don't support consumers with South African credit cards .... hmmmm! I can recommend
eMusic.com though. They are an mp3 subscription website, though some of their artists are not available to download "in your country"! And
Rhythm Records also sells mp3s of South African artists online.
Interestingly, despite the adverts, home taping never actually killed music! In fact music seems to be stronger than ever. A few of my mixtape ideas,
imaginary compilations and
mp3 compilations can been seen at
Art Of The Mix,
Vagabond's World and
SAmp3.com.
My iTunes
Some of the music that is currently on heavy rotation on my iTunes jukebox.
| Song |
Artist |
Comments |
| New & Recent Releases |
| The Saints Are Coming |
U2 & Green Day |
Awesome cover of the Skids track from 1978. |
| Mail-Order Russian Bride |
Jim Neversink |
Wonderful South African nu-folk song available at 24.com |
| Everett Ruess |
Dave Alvin |
Superb true story country rock ballad available on the Ashgrove album. |
| We're Gonna Boogie |
Primal Scream |
Liberal doses of Marc Bolan. Gotta love it. |
| First Date |
Danko Jones |
Cheeky like Phil Lynott, in-your-face like AC/DC. |
| Bring Them Home (live 2006) |
Bruce Springsteen |
Pete Seeger |
| Woman |
Wolfmother |
New classic rock with Black Purple riffs and swirling organ. |
| Karmastition |
Alicia Keys vs Stevie Wonder (mashed by Mark Vidler ) |
Great mash-up mix. |
| Brand Suid-Afrika |
Fokofpolisiekar |
Rhythm Records |
| 1 Krwl Klosr |
Linkin Park (mashed by Crisur) |
Crisur mashes 2 Linkin Park songs. 2+2=5 indeed. |
| Rapture Riders |
The Doors vs Blondie (mashed by Mark Vidler) |
Go Home Productions |
| Mozambique (2006 version) |
Jack Hammer |
"Where blue water meets white sand...". Download at Rhythm Records |
| Not That New |
| Who Killed Kurt Cobain |
Koos Kombuis |
Candidate for the greatest song that the world has never heard. |
| Papa Was A Rolling Stone (2004) |
Rare Earth |
eMusic.com |
| Who Do You Love? (live) |
Albert Frost |
Bo Diddley cover available at Rhythm Records |
| Another Man's Woman |
BlueScream |
BlueScream |
| Old-ish and Really Old |
| Vice in Bombay |
Via Afrika |
80's Afropop now on CD at RetroFresh. |
| Kiss The Blues Goodbye (live 1979) |
Grinderswitch |
eMusic.com |
| In My Room |
Nancy Sinatra |
eMusic.com |
| Smokestack Lightning |
Soundgarden |
Ultramega OK |
| Night Train |
Jimmy Forrest |
eMusic.com |
| Almal Maak Haar Mal (live 1997) |
Valiant Swart |
Voetstoots |
| Beside You (Bang Sessions version) |
Van Morrison |
eMusic.com |
| Climb Up On My Music |
Rodriguez |
After The Fact |
| It's Only Make Believe |
The Misfits |
eMusic.com |
| Whippin' Post (live 1984) |
Frank Zappa |
eMusic.com |
| Piano Concerto No.1: Toccata concertata |
Alberto Ginastera (composer),
Dora De Marinis (piano)
|
Covered by Emerson, Lake & Palmer as 'Toccata' on 'Brain Salad Surgery'. eMusic.com |
| The Time Of The Preacher |
Johnny Cash & Sean Kinney |
eMusic.com |
Rock History
A series of essays with accompanying playlists / CDs.
Introduction
This series of essays had it's start with questions prompted by my 2 teenage sons, Michael and Christopher, whilst driving to school in the mornings.
There is always music in the car, and sometimes just a simple question like "this is Elvis, isn't it?" or "what's the difference between old punk and new punk?" was enough to start a discussion (or a "lecture", as my children might suggest) that could go on for days.
Prompted by my boys, I decided to start putting these "lectures" down in writing and also to compile playlists / CDs to go along with them. These are my opinions and selections as a fan who has invested large sums of money and uncountable hours of time in the pursuit of my musical passion. Often my opinions and favourites co-incide with that of most fans and/or critics (i.e. The Beatles) and sometimes they veer off in strange directions (err,
Ramases, anyone?).
A true music critic, in my opinion, is someone who has been impressed enough by an artist, song or album to actually spend money on adding them to their collection. So these are not meant to be definitive essays on an artist or a genre, but are based on my personal experiences and budget limitations. So if an artist or song is missing from my ramblings, it's probably because I don't have it in my collection. I remember once in 1977 having to choose between the first Boston album and Rainbow On Stage because I couldn't afford both. Being a huge
Deep Purple fan, Ritchie Blackmore's offshoot won that Battle Of The Budget!
Artists names in
red indicates that they are of South African origin.
The Roots Of Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake and Palmer were heavily influenced by classical and jazz pieces (as most proggers were).
A few songs on the original ELP albums sampled sections of classical compositions without giving any credit, similar to what Led Zeppelin did with a few old blues songs on their early albums.
The CD re-issues have credited the correct sources now. I've tried to find as many songs on
eMusic.com as possible that have been covered and/or sampled by ELP over the years. My list with accompanying notes can be found
here »»»
PUNK ROCK
Punk Rock, as I know it, started in 1976 with the Sex Pistols and ended a couple of years later when everyone went New Wave. The so-called "Godfathers of Punk" were the late 60's/early 70's American bands, The Velvet Underground, the MC5, the New York Dolls (more glam, than punk though) and The Stooges with Iggy Pop. They in turn had been infused by the spirit of the 60's 'Garage Rock' movement which said that anybody could make music, no matter how little talent or skill you had.
However Punk Rock was not just a musical phenonemon, but also a socio-economic one, as well as being a fashion statement and very British.
The youth in Britain in the mid-70's were unemployed, on the dole, bored and very angry. Through Punk they found a way to express themselves. Punk was not only a music style, it was a lifestyle, involving outrageous hairstyles and clothing. Wearing safety-pins on your clothes was actually probably necessary to hold them together!
Many state the first song of 70's Punk Rock was 'New Rose' by The Damned, and I don't dispute this, but the first song I heard was 'Anarchy In The UK' by the Sex Pistols.
I had been (and still am) a huge fan of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Pink Floyd, Yes, et al ... the dinosaurs that Punk was supposed to make extinct, and I guess it worked for a while. I heard the raw, sneering, British-accented voice of Johnny Rotten spitting out 'I am an anti-christ, I am an anarchist' (which sent the South African government of the time into fits of apolexy) and knew that something very different was happening here.
Punk crossed back across the Atlantic (like rock 'n roll had done with The Beatles in 1964) and bands like The Ramones, who had been around for a while already, were now painted with the Punk brush.
In South Africa, the anger from the White Youth was directed more at the government's policies of control. The Black Youth were totally disenfranchised under Apartheid, but that's a completely different story. Remember, however, that the 16th June Soweto Riots happened in 1976, and is commemorated each year as Youth Day.
Punk Rock started out as noisy 3-chord rock and roll with huge amounts of anger and energy. Bands like the Clash and the Police (who were never really punk, anyway) started embracing Ska and Reggae sounds.
Punk Rock soon got watered down to go mainstream and become New Wave. By the early 80's the smartly-dressed New Romantics with their guitar-less Electro-pop were now the vogue.
Side-bar: I was in the army in 1978 and there were basically 2 music factions among my friends of the time, Punk (i.e. Sex Pistols) or Reggae (i.e. Bob Marley). (The Afrikaans guys also liked Country, but I digress). I chose a different route and bought the first Dire Straits album, telling all who would listen that these guys would be big ... and I was right.
OLD PUNK FOR NEW EARS
Due to the limitations of a single CD, I've applied my "one artist, one song" rule which allows me to give exposure to more artists. Otherwise I could just put "Nevermind The Bollocks" up here and leave it at that!
I've included the Godfathers of Punk to give some perspective, but the majority of songs come from that "golden age of punk"; 1977-1978 and then a few early 80's tracks.
Some South African punk bands appear here as well, including
The Asylum Kids which featured Robbi Robb, and
The News with 'Tudor Convertible' which is an early mash-up of 'Greensleeves' (apparently written by Henry VIII!) and Herman's Hermits 'I'm Henry The VIII, I Am'.
- Run Run Run - The Velvet Underground & Nico
- Search And Destroy - Iggy & The Stooges
- Personality Crisis - The New York Dolls
- Anarchy In The UK - The Sex Pistols
- Gary Gilmore's Eyes - The Adverts
- Rip Her To Shreds - Blondie
- New Rose - The Damned
- Chinese Rocks - Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers
- Sheena Is A Punk Rocker - The Ramones
- Blank Generation - Richard Hell & The Voidoids
- Peaches - The Stranglers
- Record Companies - Wild Youth
- Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) - The Buzzcocks
- Law & Order - The Radio Rats
- Top Of The Pops - The Rezillos
- Hong Kong Garden - Siouxsie & The Banshees
- Teenage Kicks - The Undertones
- Identity - X-Ray Spex
- London Calling - The Clash
- Babylon's Burning - The Ruts
- Suburbia – The Safari Suits
- Hersham Boys - Sham 69
- Nightmare - Peach
- Schoolboy - The Asylum Kids
- International News - National Wake
- Tudor Convertible - The News
Read more about South African Punk bands of the late 70's and early 80's
here »»»
See also "New Punk For Old Ears" at
The Art Of The Mix.
Blues From The Deep South (Of Africa)
by Brian Currin, February 2007
(This essay was commissioned by Finnish website
Cinema SF)
Introduction
I was born in South Africa 4 days after "The Day The Music Died" according to Don McLean (you work it out!). I was born and bred in a home filled with music (mainly Church Hymns and Showtunes) but soon discovered in my pre-teen years that I had absolutely no talent for singing or playing an instrument. I do play a mean air guitar solo though – I usually play a Black Fender Stratocaster Original Air Guitar. I also play Air Organ – a Hammond B3 of course - and recently I’ve started learning to play Air Harmonica.
Since I had this overwhelming passion for music, but not the skills to perform it, I started collecting music as well as information about music and also statistics and lists. Finding musical information in Apartheid-era South Africa was difficult to say the least, but my passion knew no bounds and I persevered.
In 1973 I heard the ‘Made in Japan’ version of ‘Smoke Of The Water’ by Deep Purple and my fate as a Rock Fan was sealed. I always thought that when I grew up I would lose my love of Rock and get into Classical and Jazz as "older" people did. Never happened! What did happen is that I just added and added more styles, types and genres to my musical tastes, though Classic Rock is still my first love and Deep Purple is still my favourite group. After listening to Purple and Zeppelin and Tull and Clapton and such-like I wanted to hear the original blues that inspired them … and a whole new world of discovering the Blues masters opened up for me.
A true music critic, in my opinion, is someone who has been impressed enough by an artist, song or album to actually spend money on adding them to their collection. So my ramblings on this website will be based on my personal experiences and budget limitations. So if an artist or song is not mentioned, it's probably because I don't have it in my collection. I remember once in 1977 having to choose between the first Boston album and Rainbow On Stage because I couldn't afford both. Being a huge Deep Purple fan, Ritchie Blackmore's offshoot won that Battle Of The Budget!
In recent years I’ve been very fortunate to able to generate income from my passion and love of music and to sometimes even receive music and concert tickets that I didn’t have to pay for.
South African Blues
Because of South Africa’s unique geographical position and cosmopolitan population, there is really no such thing as a single defining style of "South African Music". We seem have everything here on the Southern Tip of Africa including African Tribal music, Zulu Township Jazz, Country and Western, Death Metal, Electronica and so much more, all with their own clearly-defined (and sometimes overlapping) niche markets. However the blues seems to be very popular in South Africa amongst most population groups, though I’ve never seen any research to support this theory of mine.
Blues in South Africa includes a wide variety of genres including Jazz Blues, Folk Blues, Traditional Blues, Blues Rock, Acoustic Blues and even blues sung in the language of Afrikaans which for want of a better name we will call Afrikaans Blues. So really South African Blues is just a term to mean Blues played by South African musicians. Cover versions of old blues classics abound, but there are also a large number of original compositions written in a variety of blues styles. Very few South African Blues musicians actually concentrate on playing the Blues exclusively, but rather play a mix of Blues, Rock, Blues-Rock and Country Rock.
One of my favourite artists and in my opinion one of South Africa’s greatest guitarists, is Albert Frost.
Albert Frost
Albert Frost is master guitarist who started playing as a teenager in the 90's with The Blues Broers. "Broer" (pronounced "brew") is Afrikaans for "brother". Albert’s late father Frank Frost was the original drummer of the Blues Broers, so Albert was both Frank's son and his 'broer'. Frost is a brilliant blues and rock guitarist and an in-demand session musician, and has played alongside many famous South African names including Koos Kombuis, Valiant Swart, Arno Carstens and Anton Goosen.
He is adept at playing acoustic blues, wah-wah rock guitar, psychedelic voodoo blues and even the sophisicated pop-rock of ex-Springbok Nude Girls singer Arno Carstens solo albums.
I have had the privilege of seeing Albert Frost play live a number of times. I’ve seen him play blues with the Blues Broers and the Albert Frost Trio and also rock out with Arno Carstens. He loves to jam and is often seen on stage with other bands or inviting other guitarists to jam with him.
A highlight of the STRAB Festival in Mozambique in May 2006 was the Albert Frost Trio featuring Lanie van der Walt on bass and Jorik Pienaar on drums. This powerhouse band rocked their way through Albert's blues and rock songbook and really impressed the crowd.
Albert Frost obviously loves playing his music, possibly almost as much as the fans love hearing him play.
Recommended listening:
Albert Frost - Born Under A Born Sign (virtual compilation) [2006]
This is a virtual collection I compiled of tracks by Albert Frost that are available on the Rhythm Records Online Music Store. They span from 1995 with The Blues Broers, via sessions with Valiant Swart and Anika, some tracks from his band with Simon Orange and Jacques Schutte, Frosted Orange, and the stunning live performances from his solo live album, 'Catfish'. Due to licencing restrictions his work with Arno Carstens could not be included.
