Pop That Goes Crunch!

Seven Decades Of Melodic Rock & Roll

Archive for the tag “Rock and Roll”

01 Mar 2015
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Big Rock ‘N Roll From Watts And One Like Son

Rumors of the death of rock ‘n roll are greatly exaggerated. Want proof? Check out these two recent releases.

Watts Flash Of White Light

Watts, Flash Of White Light: Once upon a time, real rock ‘n roll could be heard anywhere and everywhere – AM radio, picnics, barbecues, shopping centers, sporting events, etc. It was part of the fabric of daily life, particularly when its practitioners spiked their guitar and drum attacks with liberal doses of big left and right hooks.

On its third long-player, Flash Of White Light, Boston’s Watts unabashedly and unapologetically summon those days gone by and deliver forty minutes of blistering rock ‘n roll tempered by the occasional slower burn to keep the heat at least somewhat manageable.

The band’s basic approach is spelled out in the title track, which kicks off the festivities: “Don’t get excited/hold on tight/blazing guitars and a flash of white light,” begins the chorus in delivering a perfect statement of purpose:

“Wasted Angels” provides a nice excuse to pump one, or both, of your fists in the air while singing happily along. “Rocks” sounds precisely as advertised, particularly if you think about a mid-70’s album of the same name issued by a rather successful Boston-based band. As is also to be expected, “Ghosts On The Dancefloor” has a great beat, and you can dance to it!

The less rousing tracks on Flash Of White Light are no less successful. “Wrapped Like Candy” slowly makes its case for more than three minutes before descending into a long fade-out. “Sidewinder” plays like a missing track from Exile On Main Street. “Flying Over With Bombs” nicely sound checks “Sweet Child O’ Mine”:

The guys in Watts know they are not producing wildly original sounds. They even joke about it on “Trick,” which closes the eleven-song set by beginning: “We wrote this song today/you thought you heard it play when you were younger.”

Indeed, we did. So what? Its only rock ‘n roll, but I like it. A lot.

Get it here.

One Like Son

One Like Son, New American Gothic: “Each song from the album ‘New American Gothic’ was written and recorded in 1 week during the 52 Weeks Songwriting Project,” says the band’s page on Bandcamp. If you dig deeper on Bandcamp, you also will find an album called 52 Weeks, which contains the fifty-two (!) songs from which the thirteen tracks on New American Gothic were culled.

One Like Son is largely a project of Stephen Poff, with the able assistance of Clinton Kirby on bass, Brian Seagraves on piano, and Ryan Fennell on drums. The band received a bunch of press a few years ago for producing an “entire album on an iPhone.”

Everything on New American Gothic screams “big.” The guitars are loud and full. The drums pound relentlessly. Poff’s vocals are strong and emphatic throughout. Even better is that New American Gothic is also chock full of great songs.

The title track is a pounding five-minute story of enduring modern romance between “the misfits and the preachers’ daughters.” Its chorus will ring around your head for quite some time:

“Punk Rock Prom Queen” explores a similar theme — love will protect you against the scoffing of small-minded conformists. Its doppelganger,”Sister Mary (Got Her Gun),” is completely un-serious Power Pop featuring this rather nice sing-along verse: “Bang bang went her gun/bang bang no more fun/bang bang turn and run/no one’s safe cause she’s mad as hell tonight.” “What Momma Knew” is a head-bopping bit of rockin’ pop about the transcendent power of rock and roll and Star Wars. If all else fails, of course, you can always “close your eyes and live inside your head”:

New American Gothic does not try to break any new stylistic ground. Instead, One Like Son deliver thirteen examples of finely crafted, big sounding, melodic rock ‘n roll. You can’t beat that. Get it here, and play it loud.

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06 Jul 2014

The Big Show #3: Girls, Girls, Girls!

Girls, Girls GirlsThe theme of The Big Show #3 its “Girls, Girls, Girls!” — a collection of songs in the vaunted rockin’ pop tradition of writing and recording songs about that special, or not-so-special, someone out there. All of the songs have the name of a “girl” in the title — Caroline, Emily, Melanie, Allison, Mary Anne etc. There is even a song about Emma Stone

On tap in this edition are songs by The Go-Betweens, The Liars Club, The Nines, Jupiter Affect, The Well Wishers, Kurt Baker, The Connection, a Phenomenal Cats/Legal Matters doubleheader, and much, much more.

The Big Show #3 is posted at Mixcloud, but you can hear it directly in this post by clicking on the picture, below. The complete track list appears directly below that:

 

Track List:

1.  The Go-Betweens, “Caroline and I”

2.  Josh Rouse, “Carolina”

3.  Splitsville, “Caroline Knows”

4.  Pink Floyd, “See Emily Play”

5.  Liar’s Club, “Emily”

6.  The Records, “That Girl Is Emily”

7.  Cosmic Rough Riders, “Melanie”

8.  The Nines, “Melenie”

9.  Material Issue, “Valerie Loves Me”

10. The New Mendicants, “Cruel Annette”

11. The Three O’Clock, “Marjorie Tells Me”

12. Jupiter Affect, “Druscilla I Dig Your Scene”

13. The Well Wishers, “Allison”

14. The Lemonheads, “Alison’s Starting To Happen”

15. The Phenomenal Cats, “Mary Anne With The Shaky Hands”

16. The Legal Matters, “Mary Anne”

17. The Spongetones, “(My Girl) Maryanne”

18. Kurt Baker, “Emma Stone”

19. The Connection, “Melinda”

 

 

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23 Dec 2013
7 Comments

Top 20 Songs of 2013

I decided this year to compile a list of my 20 favorite songs of the past twelve months. Although I review albums on this site, most of my listening is done via playlists that I either compile myself, or which are generated by an iOS “apRecordsp” based on information in the Last.fm database.

As always, it is difficult to make fine line distinctions between great songs that come from a similar sensibility. Certainly, any of the songs in my Top 10 could have landed at No. 1. I could make that case for some of the tracks in the 11-20 positions, as well. And, over time, my assessments could change, as they did during the year. Nevertheless, this is how I see them at the end of 2013. Full tracks are embedded, or can be heard via the included link.

1.   Eric Barao — “On Holiday” (S/T): An audacious, lushly produced roller-coaster of a song that confidently kicks off one of the year’s best albums. Listen.

2.   The Sharp Things — “Light In My Harbor” (The Truth Is Like The Sun): The key lyric — “I love your face/and the tales it tell, its true/you’re the light in my harbor” — spends a lot of time in my mind. The piano, horns, strings, soulful vocals and jazzy interlude make it irresistible. Listen.

3.   Nick Piunti — “13 In My Head” (13 In My Head): Hands down, the best rocker of the year. It looks backward and forward in both sound and outlook, behind driving guitars and Piunti’s classic vocals:

4.   An American Underdog — “Good Girl” (The A/B EP): This one builds and builds in a sweeping, almost cinematic fashion to an emotional conclusion. And, as we have come to expect from Andy Reed, the track is beautifully sung, recorded and played (with some assistance). Listen.

5.   Stephen Lawrenson — “Words To Say” (Obscuriosity): Melancholy rarely sounds this pretty. I’m a sucker for the kind of jangly 12-string Rickenbacker guitar that anchors this update of a classic mid-60s sound. Listen

6.   Wyatt Funderburk — “Love Will Lead The Way” (Novel and Profane): A perfect pop song, without a bell or a whistle anywhere in sight. Simplicity is often the ultimate in elegance:

 

7.   Lisa Mychols — “Make Believe” (Above, Beyond & In Between) — As she usually does, Mychols takes me back to the days of sitting in the backseat of my parents’ old Chevy Malibu listening to AM radio. Listen.

8.   And The Professors — “Turn of the Century Recycling Blues” (Our Postmortem): They describe themselves as “orchestral pop rock,” and I’ll buy that. One of the more jaunty tracks on a brilliant album that deserves much more attention than it has received:

9.  Vegas With Randolph — “You Set The World On Fire” (Rings Around The Sun): A rocking ode to science, philosophy and the advancement of human knowledge in an era where those things are sometimes in doubt. Free your mind, and check it out right here.

10. Bye Bye Blackbirds — “Waiting For The Drums” (We Need The Rain): This is also a perfectly constructed, simple pop song. I defy you to try to sit still while listening:

11.  Agony Aunts — “Mother Make Sleep” (Big Cinnamon): Purposefully obscure lyrics, minimal changes, and an old-school guitar solo yanked from the mid-70s. In a word, perfect. Listen.

12.  Brandon Schott — “Verdugo Park — Part 2” (The A/B EP): Schott handles all sounds, except for bass, on this soaring track with undertones of the Zombies’ classic, Odyssey & Oracle. Listen.

13.  honeychain — “Lucky One” (Futura): Driving old-school new wave/punk rock, kind of like the Buzzcocks mashed with the Go-Go’s. Listen.

14.  The Connection — “Melinda” (Let It Rock!): This is buried as track 13 on Let It Rock!, and thus is probably often ignored. It’s yet another simple, perfectly arranged pop song that will leave you singing “I write the songs/She sings alone” in your head for hours on end. Listen.

15.  The Sun Sawed in 1/2 — “Brittle Star” (Elephants Into Swans): An exuberant piece of joyful Power Pop, featuring some of the strongest lead vocals of the year. Listen.

16.  Andrea Perry — “Spring” (Four): This sounds like a missing track from Cotton Mather’s Kontiki, which is quite a good thing since that is one of my all-time favorite pop albums. Perry’s winsome vocals play off perfectly against the subtle and quietly driving rhythm. Listen.

17.  Andy Klingensmith — “Template Song” (Pictures Of): This sounds unlike anything else on this list. Its just an acoustic guitar and Klingesmith’s gorgeous, multi-layered vocals. Its simply stunning:

18.  The Well Wishers — “Open Your Eyes” (Dunwoody): Jeff Shelton delivers a perfect traditional guitar-driven pop song about life’s regrets, and possible transcendence. Listen.

19.  Lannie Flowers — “Dance With Me” (Drink A Toast To Innocence). I did not want to include cover songs on this list, but this cover of the Orleans’ smash hit is such a wonderful creative re-imagining (that while nevertheless remains essentially true to the original) that it could not be avoided. I can imagine a bride and a groom dancing happily to this version at their wedding. Listen.

20. The Dead Girls — “Find Your Way Back To Me (Oh My Soul)” (Fade In/Fade Out): At more than six minutes in length, this track is of epic proportions for a pop song. It nevertheless offers a pitch-perfect combination of Neil Young circa 1973 and Big Star without sounding at all retro. Listen.

So, there you have it, the best of the best of 2013. They make a spectacular playlist.

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05 Nov 2013
2 Comments

The Flamin’ Groovies Still Shakin’ Some Action

Flamin' GrooviesHere’s a quick one this morning.

If I were to compile a list of my all-time favorite songs, The Flamin’ Groovies‘ “Shake Some Action” would easily land in the Top 20. Released in 1976, the track was inspired by The British Invasion while incorporating strands of nascent punk rock and new wave. It is “beat music” in the best sense, with chiming jangling guitars, loud riffs, pounding drums and a chorus that will stick in your mind for days on end.

“Shake Some Action” was simultaneously ten years behind the times and ten years ahead of the times. While that kind of positioning is hardly a prescription for chart success, the song’s influence on the guitar-driven “alternative rock” of the 80s, 90s and beyond is unmistakable:

My eleven-year even old loves “Shake Some Action,” more than thirty-seven years after its release. Talk about your timeless music.

Portions of the band have reunited, and they are playing a number of shows in November in the Midwest and on the East Coast. They are also working on an EP. The first song, “End Of The World,” can be streamed through a wonderful profile of the band posted this morning on Rolling Stone’s website.

Take a listen. “End Of The World” picks up where tracks like “Shake Some Action” left off long ago. Its chiming guitars are instantly recognizable, and its pounding rhythms flow smoothly seamlessly into what could prove to be an equally memorable chorus. Rolling Stone describes “End Of The World” quite nicely:

[It] blends proto-punk energy with power-pop melody. A certain rawness permeates the band’s dedication to pop rhythm, making it sound like it could have been recorded today or in 1972.

Or, for that matter, 1982, 1992 etc.

There’s something for everyone in “End Of The World,” whether you are in your 60s, your 50s, or your 20s. Or, if you are an eleven-year old sitting in the back seat of my car.

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04 Nov 2013

Dig The Old School Retro Power Pop Of The Fans

The Fans -- You Don't Live Here Anymore

I’ve come into possession lately of a lot of old-school Power Pop from the late-70s and early-80s. Most of it would have been called “new wave” or “punk rock” at the time, although some of it pre-dates the invention or popular use of those two terms. All of it, though, featured bright guitars, driving beats, close harmonies and a rejection of the slurry mass of goo that most commercial “rock and roll” had become in the 1970s. “New Wave” was a misnomer. This stuff was retro. It sounded like 1965, but often on speed.

One such frenetic retro rocking Power Pop outfit was The Fans. The were formed in Bristol, England in 1978, and released a couple of singles on the wonderfully titled “Fried Egg” label before disbanding after a couple of years.

Try not to move, bop your head, tap your feet, etc. while listening to “You Don’t Live Here Anymore.” Its as simple as it gets — “I don’t want you ’round here anymore/I don’t want you knocking on my door/I don’t want you ’round here in the morning/’round here in the evening/around here any time at all” — and propelled by a pounding beat, crystal clear vocals and no adornment whatsoever.

All of that, of course, makes it brilliant, and far better sounding thirty-five years later than its much more popular “album oriented rock” contemporaries:

Unlike a lot of old school Power Pop, the Fans’ short-lived output is not lost forever to history. A 17-track of odds and ends, including “You Don’t Live Here Anymore,” is available from CD Baby for $16.97. It’s worth checking out.

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29 Oct 2013

Lou Reed’s Pop Genius

Lou ReedThe intrepid curators of the PowerPop blog unearthed and posted a wonderful piece of formerly lost pop music history — a 20 year-old “Lewis” Reed making like Dion a couple of years before the Beatles first landed in the United States. You can check out “Lewis” bouncing his way through the minute-fifty nine “Your Love” right here. It’s a nice surprise.

I bring this up because the tributes to Reed following his passing focused generally on the same things. AP’s tribute to the “iconic punk poet” is fairly typical:

His trademarks were a monotone of surprising emotional range and power; slashing, grinding guitar; and lyrics that were complex, yet conversational, designed to make you feel as if Reed were seated next to you. Known for his cold stare and gaunt features, he was a cynic and a seeker who seemed to embody downtown Manhattan culture of the 1960s and ’70s and was as essential a New York artist as Martin Scorsese or Woody Allen. Reed’s New York was a jaded city of drag queens, drug addicts and violence, but it was also as wondrous as any Allen comedy, with so many of Reed’s songs explorations of right and wrong and quests for transcendence.

Although I have no real quarrel with that, it forgets that Reed could also pen the perfect melody. The 20-year-old “Lewis” heard on “Your Love” persisted through Reed’s later excursions into “slashing” and “grinding” guitars to write some of the best and most enduring pop music of the past fifty years.

One of the best examples of Reed’s pop instincts in action is “Stephanie Says,” which was recorded in 1968 but did not officially see the light of day until 1985. Its lilting strings and celesta (a keyboard instrument with metal plates struck by hammers to produce bell-like tones) give it a baroque feel. The power of the lyrics derive from the way the words sound together instead of whatever they might mean:

Stephanie says that she wants to know/Why she’s given half her life/to people she hates now

Stephanie says when answering the phone/What country shall I say is calling from across the world

Here it is, complete with lyrics:

The celesta also “propels” another one of Reed’s pure pop masterpieces, the lush and daydreamy “Sunday Morning,” the track that kicks off The Velvet Underground With Nico. Its words are also memorable, and stick in your mind, based on how they sound strung together so simply and precisely:

Watch out, the world’s behind you/There’s always someone around you who will call/It’s nothing at all

Here it is:

I first discovered Reed and The Velvet Underground in the 80s when my I was rocking to The Clash and other kindred spirits. “I’m Waiting for the Man” and “Heroin” were, and remain, great songs about “the downtown Manhattan culture of the 60s.” But I always preferred “Stephanie Says” and “Sunday Morning,” as well as songs like “Sweet Jane,” “Pale Blue Eyes” and “What Goes On.”

Anyone can make “slashing” and “grinding” guitar sounds. It takes a pop genius to write, as Reed did in “Stephanie Says,”: “But she’s not afraid to die, the people all call her Alaska /Between worlds so the people ask her/’cause it’s all in her mind/It’s all in her mind.”

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27 Jan 2013

Alex Chilton Does The Rolling Stones

Alex Chilton

I’ve written previously about Big Star, here and at the bottom of this. As I noted previously, the band probably influenced everything else discussed on this site. They rank as an all-time favorite.

A fellow music blogger, Loosehandlebars, recently posted a great piece on three covers of Rolling Stones songs. One of those covers was “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” that Alex Chilton recorded in 1970, two years before Big Star released its debut, #1 Record. Loosehandlbars captures quite nicely what is so great about Chilton’s cover of one of the Stones’ most enduring and popular tracks:

This is the Big Star sound he was looking for. A combination of drive & melody which evokes the best of 60s British rock but has its own thing going on. The fluidity of Chilton’s guitar work is a thing of beauty & this cover, like the best of the band’s work, makes you go ‘Oh Boy! This is how it is done’. Every rock music writer ever has said their piece about Big Star. All I want to add is that halfway through their classic songs you go, Whoa ! if only all music was this good. My favourite Stones cover I think.

Mine too. Loosehandlebars later responded to my comment on his piece by noting “this cover has, for me, a touch of ‘Back Of A Car’ about it. No higher praise.” Here is  Chilton’s wonderful version of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”:

For good measure, here’s Big Star’s “Back Of A Car” from the band’s second record, Radio City:

While you are at it, go check out Loosehandlebars’ almost daily writings on music, often from a personal perspective. They are insightful, and always interesting. They can be found here, or in the “blogroll” to the right. Fans of melodic rock might will found his piece on the Go-Betweens, another all-time favorite, particularly interesting.

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22 Dec 2012

The Shazam’s Rev9: Far Better Than 2 And 1/2 Stars

The Shazam -- Rev9

I really like The AllMusic Guide. Its pretty comprehensive. Its usually accurate. The reviews are often informative. I find myself consulting the site frequently to get more information about something, or someone, I’ve heard for the first time.

Here is one, however, they got wrong — massively, ridiculously wrong: 2 and 1/2 stars (out of 5) for Rev9 by The Shazam from 2000.

O.K., I know. Rev9 is just an EP. It clocks in at less than twenty-eight minutes. Six of those minutes are consumed by the title track which is, shall we say, a creative “re-imagination” of perhaps the single worst song in the entire Beatles catalog (“Revolution 9”). Rev9 is far from perfect.

But before we delve into what is actually quite good about Rev9, check out some of the works of great artistic merit that also received 2 and 1/2 stars from the AllMusic Guide:

  • Jessica Simpson, In This Skin: “[I]ts heart is in the mature middle of the road but its sound is still pitched too young, making this a record that satisfies neither audience.”
  • Kiss, Kiss Symphony: Alive IV: “The full orchestra shows up, in Kiss makeup of course, for the whole of the second disc. It sounds more bloated than bombastic as the mix ping-pongs between crunchy guitars and disco-style string and horn flourishes.”
  • Rod Stewart, It Had To Be You: The Great American Songbook: “[T]he whole project has an artificial undercurrent that’s hard to shake, especially since the song selection, the arrangements, and the performances play it so safe they’re largely undistinguished.”

“Unsatisfying,” “bloated,” “bombastic,” “artificial undercurrent,” “undistinguished” — is that what Rev9 is? AllMusic isn’t exactly fond of its experimentation: “[D]o we really want to hear experimental collages and progressive rock from one of America’s leading power pop bands?”

Well, Rev9 starts off with “On The Airwaves.” Sure, it has some weird noises and affected radio sounds, but it was nevertheless sufficiently rocking to be “The Coolest Song In The World” for a week on Little Steven’s Underground Garage:

“Wood And Silver” is also about radio, or to be more precise, an old trusted transistor from days gone by: “It ain’t worth nothin’ but it works just fine/After all this time, you’d think I would have thrown it away.” As AllMusic notes, “Wood And Silver” certainly has a trippy feel to it and is washed occasionally in mellotron. Sometimes, though, you just have to say “more mellotron.” “Wood And Silver” still flashes some pretty tasty, chiming guitar and a catchy chorus. You know, like in Power Pop.

The next track, “Okay,” sounds like something off of Big Star’s Radio City. I guess that would be some more Power Pop.

“Periscope” is a mid-tempo rocker punctuated with banjo.

“Month Of Moons” would have felt at home on one of David Bowie’s early-70s long-players.

“Take Me,” the second-to-last song, is a dreamy, simply gorgeous track with mandolins, strings, mellotron and nearly perfect vocals. It alone is worth the price of admission.

I like The Shazam’s rocking, head bopping exercises in pure Power Pop — think “New Thing Baby” from 2002’s Tomorrow The World — as much as anyone else. But Rev9, replete with “experimental collages,” beats the living daylights out of the “unsatisfying,” “bloated,” “bombastic,” “artificial” and “undistinguished” product of Jessica Simpson, Kiss and Rod Stewart. Its not a 5 star record. 4 would be good.

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19 Nov 2012

Speed Of Live: A Live Record That Is Actually Quite Good

Most live records are kind of lame. They often lack the immediacy that comes with actually being at the recorded performance. Sometimes the playing is ragged. Sometimes the singing is ragged. Sometimes the recording quality is ragged. Sometimes all of the raggedness of a live recording gets covered up by studio lip gloss, thus defeating entirely the concept of a “live” record. You thus are left essentially with new, likely inferior, studio versions of old songs you probably already have. Why bother?

None of that applies to the live released earlier this year by The Grip Weeds called Speed Of Live. The Grip Weeds are a New Jersey band that took their name from John Lennon’s Private Gripweed character in the 1967 film How I Won The War. That, plus a short list of some of the songs they’ve covered in the past, will give you an idea of the musical spectrum from which they hail:

  • “I Can Hear The Grass Grow” — The Move
  • “Down To The Wire” — Buffalo Springfield
  • “She Don’t Care About Time” — The Byrds

Does that mean The Grip Weeds are hopelessly retro and mired in the good old days of the 60s? Not really. They are, first and foremost, a rock and roll band. And they sure can rock. But they are a rock band steeped in the virtues of melody and multi-part harmonies like, well, The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. And, like those bands, the guitars occasionally jangle and sometimes sound like they came from somewhere in the Middle East.

All of these virtues are evident on Speed Of Live. Immediately after the announcer introduces “this band” as “one of my favorite bands” to start the record, Speed Of Live then proceeds to deliver powerful renditions of thirteen of the band’s best known tracks, and two covers, performed in small clubs in the Northeast. This is hardly a document of cigarette lighter-raised arena rock bloat, replete with endless noodling and solos. It instead shows just how good the band is “in concert.” The singing is sharp. The playing is concise and tight throughout the fifty-seven minutes of bass, guitars and drums.

I can listen to the live version of “Salad Days,” with its occasional “Taxman”-like bassline, over-and-over again. “Infinite Soul,” already one of my favorite songs by the band, has an intimate feel on Speed Of Live as if it was recorded in my living room.

The soaring “Speed Of Life” sounds at least as good live as it does on the band’s last “proper” studio recording, 2010’s Strange Change Machine. “Love’s Lost On You” goes on for six minutes on Speed Of Live, without wasting even one of them. Here’s a shorter version of the song, recorded live in the studio:

The two covers on Speed Of Live? “(So You Want To Be A) Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” by, of course, The Byrds. This version seriously rocks, with absolutely perfect harmonies, spectacular guitar playing and lots of “la la la’s.” They also do one of the best versions of “Shakin’ All Over,” which has been recorded dozens of times, most famously by the Guess Who and The Who.

Speed Of Live is not a live record that is just “not lame.” Its fifty-seven minutes go by in what seems like an instant. There is not a single weak song in the collection, or a dull interlude in any of the fifteen songs. The record sounds great whether you are listening with headphones, or driving around in traffic at the end of a tough day at the office. In other words, Speed Of Live is just great rock and roll by a band that deserves a whole lot more attention than it receives. Go out and get it.

[This appeared originally in the now-defunct MT Weekly]

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03 Jul 2012

Jack Of All Trades

Yes, I know, cover versions of songs can suck eggs. Sometimes they are slavish imitations of the originals, hoping to cash in on familiarity. Sometimes they try so hard to be wildly different than the original that they succeed only in being wildly different than the original. No matter what, though, the original usually is better than the cover.

The song “I’m Shakin'” has been around the block a couple of times.

Little Willie John, whose 1956 waxing of “Fever” went to the top of the R&B charts, did the first version of the song, way back in 1961.

The Blasters never failed to get the crowd moving with their jazzier version, first recorded in 1981. I remember almost being knocked over a couple of times when they played it at one of their shows.

The new edition of the song by John Anthony Gillis, known better as Jack White — formerly of the White Stripes, the Raconteurs and many other bands and one-offs — is a rollicking, no-holds-barred workout with a couple of slicing guitars, some hand claps and female back-up singers added to the mix.

The AllMusic guide White’s version of “I’m Shakin'” “clumsy” and “cabaret.” If it is “clumsy,” its perfectly “clumsy,” consistent with White’s analog, tape and razor blade approach to record-making. He makes “I’m Shakin'” entirely his own. It is indeed a record, in the best mid-70s meaning of the word. It’s over-the-top in a good way.

So, here it is. I dare you to remain still while listening. The thing just moves. And enjoy the wacky home-made video mash-up featuring the Soul Train dancers:

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