Perfect Sound Forever- August 2022 issue now out

[Jason Gross]

Greetings,

In the new August 2022 issue of Perfect Sound Forever <https://www.furious.com/perfect/index0822.html>, you'll find (among other things):

A BOSTON FOLK TALE
Boston scene fiction
"After two years on Boston's folk/acoustic scene, I'd made friends with many musicians, including a few other ex-rockers. But coming by a folkie girlfriend was more complicated. They all seemed too good. A Seinfeld bit came to mind, Jerry explaining a failed romantic prospect to George as "too good," how he couldn't have sex with someone who was "giving and caring and genuinely concerned about the welfare of others." The laugh track laughed but I didn't."

THE BEE GEES
Interview with '60s member Vince Melouney
"When we think about the Bee Gees, what comes to mind is probably three brothers named Gibb (hence the name), plus disco, plus many hits. What many people don't know is that after Barry, Maurice and Robin bounced back and forth between the UK and Australia, they started getting hits around the global with an expanded line-up that included guitarist/singer/songwriter Vince Melouney."

JOHN CAGE
What does his silence piece 'mean'?
"Seventy years ago this month--on August 29, 1952--John Cage's signature composition 4'33" was premiered by pianist David Tudor in Woodstock, New York, at the Maverick Concert Hall. Although the initial reception for the piece was hostile, over time it has come to be seen as a key work of the postwar avant-garde not only for its formal audacity, but for the conceptual questions it raised and continues to raise about sound, silence, listening, compositional intention, and what counts or doesn't count as a musical performance."

KERIM CAPLI = BLUE
Is a Turkish rock bio necessary?
"In June 1996, I moved to Istanbul where I lived for 17 years. Most of my friends were musicians, rock fans, record collectors, record shop owners, record label honchos, concert promoters, club owners, and the like. Much of this time, Istanbul was home to two of the best bands in the world: ZeN and Replikas (each releasing an album in the U.S. through my help). So when I heard that there was a documentary about the 'legendary' Blues Blues Band (BBB) of the 1990’s, I wondered: 'how could I have missed a legendary band in Istanbul?'"

EUGENIUS
Post-Vaselines; Interview with Gordon Keen
"Formed in 1990 from the ashes of the now infamous Vaselines, singer/guitarist Eugene Kelly, guitarist Gordon Keen (formerly of BMX Bandits) and their Glasgow cohorts gave us Eugenius (originally called Captain America), a band full of pop wonder and dreamy, driving rock. Signed to Atlantic in the wake of Nirvana's success and Cobain's fandom, the band made an initial splash with two albums (Oomalama from 1992, Mary Queen of Scots from 1994) before retreating to the sidelines. Which is a shame because there's some great pop hooks to be found among the noise. Read on and then go out and discover some great tunes."


TRINI LOPEZ
His new revealing bio pic
"On the surface, Trini Lopez can epitomize ‘60's pop at its most congenial and happy-go-lucky. He's the guy who made folk swing, or even into a sort of go-go party music, with his Top Five 1963 live LP At PJ's. He took "If I Had a Hammer" even higher in the charts than Peter, Paul & Mary did, and brought the same peppy cheer to standards like "Down By the Riverside," "La Bamba" and "This Land Is Your Land," mixing in some rock'n'roll, R&B, and Broadway."

JONI MITCHELL & BOB DYLAN
Mid-70's heartbreak & anger
"Relationships in the 1970's were a dark mirror to those in the 1960's. Transience and sexual freedom as cornerstones turned out to be not so great after all. The liberal dream of carefree inconsequential ‘free love' was just that, a dream; love was, and is not, free. In the 1970's, divorce laws were relaxed so it was easier to end long term relationships. However long (and how much) it took to end it, the security and confidence in an imagined future based on a stable relationship vanished. For many, when a relationship ends, one is left anxious and most of all, restless."

MCCARTNEY II
Macca gets weird, experimental
"McCartney had come full circle. Wings were winding down, and Paul spent late 1979 recording his second proper solo album, 'McCartney II.' Like 'McCartney,' it was a DIY project. This was an artist having fun with his toys. "McCartney II" is the work of the man who wrote “Maxwell's Silver Hammer” and "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window." It is the sound of Weird Paul."

ANTHONY MOORE
Avant pop- Flying, producing
"We've been doing a series of yearly interviews with the incomparable composer/singer/multi-instrumentalist Anthony Moore whose work goes back to the '70's with Slapp Happy and Henry Cow up through his solo work later that decade. Here, we take up the story in the mid-70's with his production work and his glorious 1979 album "Flying Doesn't Help," which has just been reissued by Drag City."

JOHNNY RIVERS
Rocker goes folk
"Odds are, if you've been attuned to popular music of the past half-century, you've heard the two hits from 1966 for which Johnny Rivers is best known: "Secret Agent Man" and "Poor Side of Town." These mid-tempo miracles of pop-rock construction are so hook-laden that you can probably conjure at least parts of their melodies and lyrics ("They've given you a number..." "So welcome back, baby, to the..."), and you might even be able to mentally reconstruct their twangy guitar licks."

THE SEVENTH SONS
'60's hybrid of blues/folk/raga
"What to say and what not and to what extent are questions that continually arise around The Seventh Sons. It becomes an uphill battle to write about something that no one has written before with any depth and extension. In this way, the word 'essay' makes sense: the precedents do not exist and there are no sediments that could make up the possible structure of the narrative. This two-part essay seeks to right the wrongs and give this seminal band its due."

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
"Born To Run" broken down
"Springsteen's vocals bemoan existential anxiety, which is the experience of angst over human freedom to choose; subsequently, being responsible for the ensuing consequences. One's existence then becomes bereft of total meaning and purpose, considering the choices are executed without structure and rational certitude."

VINYL ANACHRONIST
Protecting vinyl- praising shelves
"My main reason for writing about LP record storage was prompted by the popularity of the IKEA Lack furniture shelves, which were a cheap way to store records because the shelves were sized just right. Problem was those thick, MDF shelves were fastened together by IKEA hardware and over time the Lack shelves simply came apart under the dense and occasionally shifting weight of hundreds, if not thousands, of LP's."

VINTAGE VIOLENCE
DC punk zine remembered
"I had been aware of this guy from Northern Virginia, Norm DeValliere, who did a zine called It's Only A Movie, devoted to the more arcane end of the British rock spectrum - Henry Cow, Slapp Happy – in addition to the artier New York likes of Patti Smith. And so, between the example of Mark P. and that long ago nudge in Creem, in March of 1977, I said, "I'll do it myself." I went to the campus bookstore on Route 1 and bought a pack of mimeograph paper."


We also have a Spotify playlist with most of the artists above here:
<https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4Nk4GqOtFQYNDcIKmywqXi?si=e812a38f00614307>

We're always looking for good writers and/or ideas so let us know if you have anything to share.

See you online,
Jason