After the death of Marley, Japanese singer Joe Yamanaka, a close friend of Marleys became the lead singer for The Wailers until 1986. They released three albums titled Reggae Vibration.

R.I.P. Joe Yamanaka of the Flower Travellin' Band

Joe Yamanaka, vocalist of the psych-rock group Flower Travellin' Band, died of lung cancer in August. I wish I had a chance to catch their shows in Toronto in 2009.

Today I was thinking about another post on Arthur Lee. Before the incarnation of Led Zepplin Robert Plant was in a cover band that did the music of Arthur Lee and Love. Robert Plant performed some covers at a recent benefit concert for Arthur Lee shortly before his death in 2006.

There is a documentary about the life of Arthur Lee coming out on August 5 2008 and will cover his life story. Some of the original members have passed on such as Bryan MacLean and Ken Forssi.

The band love was a rather short lived band in the original form it lasted from 1966 to 1968 but has had a lasting impact on music. Bryan MacLean wrote several of the tunes for the band. When the band broke up he became a Christian musician and worked with his half sister Maria McKee.

Maria Mckee was in acclaimed cow punk band Lone Justice and performed songs written by Tom Petty. She also wrote 1985 Feargal Sharkey's "A Good Heart" which hit #1 on the UK charts.



The band has a lot history and is well worth checking out. Remember they are endorsed by the lead singer of led Zepplin!

Control: The Movie of Joy Division

I saw the movie Control; it is about Ian Curtis and Joy Division. It was a slow but compelling movie. The movie was directed by Anton Corbijn, he photographed the band in the early days and did a great job in bringing forth a believable portrait. Corbijn had been a devout Joy Division fan since the band's early days in the late 1970s.

The film was shot on colour stock and printed to black and white to "reflect the atmosphere of Joy Division and the mood of the era"
The movie is based on Deborah Curtis's biography "Touching from a Distance"

The film works as both a bio-picture and a music film. I would recommend it to fans of both genres of films. The best thing about the film was that the music was actually performed by the actors, who convinced me they were the band.

As the first post of Twisted Tales of Tunes I want to talk about a couple of bands not really recognized through huge sales, but some critical acclaim and and are couple of my favorite bands. They are Love and Guided by Voices. Love is one of the best unknown bands from the recent past. The force of the music was ready made for hit status but suffered from lack of tour support and personal conflicts.

“…indescribably essential.”
- Dave Marsh

“…one of the most distinctive masterpieces in that era of masterpieces.”
- Rolling Stone

Courtesy of Rhino.com: With Rhino’s new 2-CD FOREVER CHANGES (COLLECTOR’S EDITION), Love’s definitive 1967 masterpiece is expanded with over 77 minutes of bonus material, most of it previously unreleased. A groundbreaking orchestral mix of rock, folk and psychedelia that the New York Times has called, “a milestone of pop ambition,” the album is fueled by Love co-founder and legendary front man Arthur Lee’s enigmatic lyrical poetry and haunting lead vocals. Inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 2008, FOREVER CHANGES is #40 on Rolling Stone’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums Of All Time,” where they evocatively liken its sound to “elegant armageddon.”

The third and final LP by the original Love line-up, FOREVER CHANGES was produced by Lee and longtime Doors producer/engineer Bruce Botnick (Lee championed The Doors and helped influence their signing to Elektra). Highlights include the Love classics “Alone Again Or,” “Andmoreagain,” “The Red Telephone” and “Live And Let Live.” The COLLECTOR’S EDITION’s bonus material boasts a previously unissued alternate mix of the entire album plus ten bonus tracks, including previously unreleased outtakes of “Wonder People (Do I Wonder)” and “Wooly Bully,” a mono remix of “Alone Again Or,” tracking session highlights from “The Red Telephone,” the Jac Holzman-produced demo “Hummingbirds” and more.

Pioneering in more than their sound, Love was one of the first interracial bands in rock. In its 2006 obituary for Arthur Lee, who was born in Memphis but made his mark in Los Angeles, where he moved as a young boy, the New York Times wrote, “Mr. Lee called himself ‘the first black hippie,’ and his band pushed boundaries…Love took the Sunset Strip rock scene by storm in 1965 with catchy but shifty songs, as playful as they were dark. Even in their sweetest moments, disorientation and nightmarish paranoia were never far away.”

The next band is more recent and still about as a solo project for band leader Robert Pollard. Formed in Dayton, Ohio in the early 1980s, Guided by Voices.The Band sows influence from post-British Invasion, garage rock, psychedelic rock, progressive, punk and post-punk. Guided by Voices also garnered much attention for its prolific output, with a seemingly endless stream of releases. Most songs are in the two-minute range, but many are even shorter; often they end abruptly or are intertwined with odd and homemade sound effects.Here is a list of some of the realeses

Studio albums

• 1987: Devil Between My Toes
• 1987: Sandbox
• 1989: Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia
• 1990: Same Place The Fly Got Smashed
• 1992: Propeller
• 1993: Vampire on Titus
• 1994: Bee Thousand
• 1995: Alien Lanes
• 1996: Under the Bushes, Under the Stars
• 1996: Tonics and Twisted Chasers
• 1997: Mag Earwhig!
• 1999: Do the Collapse
• 2001: Isolation Drills
• 2002: Universal Truths and Cycles
• 2003: Earthquake Glue
• 2004: Half Smiles of the Decomposed

Robert Pollard continues on releasing music under his own name and I will do a post on his solo stuff at some future date.

Thats all for now!!