Roots Rock Is Putting up Sprouts Where You Would Least Expect It
People of a certain generation (mine) bitch and moan about how great music — by that, they are usually referring to old-style rock — is dying, if not dead.
Well, as you know, if you have been reading my column, I disagree. Yes, in America it certainly can seem that way, and if people are going to call our popular music empty and vapid, I’m not going to argue because, well, it is! I’ve even written about how and why it became that way.
Like a lot of other oldsters, my fallback for a long time was my precious vinyl from the golden age of rock. Some of those records are worn out, others are warped because they got too hot one summer…and some are still playable. The internet and streaming allow us to fill in a lot of the gaps, but as I think many of us would agree, nothing can replace vinyl. In fact, vinyl is making a comeback for those who can afford it.
But something else has happened which should give us hope. Bands are playing classic 60s-70s-80s-style rock. I don’t just mean cover bands — we’ve had those forever. Some of them are even pretty good — I heard one that sounded exactly like the Doors, which was kind of cool. Still, I’d never pay to see one (except, maybe, Zepparella). I’ve seen too many of the originals to be captivated by most cover bands.
But actually composing new music with that kind of punch, with that same level of care and ambition? That’s another thing. And playing it with the same attention to the craft? That is almost subversive today, in the post-grunge era of minimalism, but some bands are doing it.
Not many of them are in the U.S., but there are a few. I posted earlier about Halestorm. The Pretty Reckless are another. Greta van Fleet made a big splash when they showed up in 2013, though they are a bit controversial because they sound almost too much like a clone of Led Zeppelin. Still, they write their own material, and they can play.
That said, America is not the world. The seeds planted around the rest of the planet by the great British and American rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s took root, and oh my, did they bear fruit. I post regularly about Band-Maid, the progressive hard-rock band from Japan, which is in many ways redefining rock music — some say creating their own genre. I want to focus on a band taking almost the opposite approach in this post.
Glim Spanky formed in 2007 as a quartet. The only constants since then have been Remi Matsuo (vocals, rhythm guitar) and Hiroki Kamemoto (lead guitar, multi-instrumentalist). Remi writes and composes most of their music. They have had a rotating cast of musicians filling out the other positions in the band. Where Band-Maid are aggressively experimental, Glim Spanky are unabashedly a roots-rock band and have carefully studied the great bands of the 60s and 70s for inspiration.
They channel influences from blues, folk-rock, early hard rock, and Southern rock. Their songs variously hint at Jefferson Airplane, the original Fleetwood Mac, Cream, Joan Jett, and even the Allman Brothers. It’s all done with a modern edge to the instrumentals and Remi’s unique, raspy voice. Listening to them can feel like being drug right back into 60s and 70s Americana.
“Breaking Down Blues”
The Blues were invented in America, and then abandoned. John Mayer, Gary Clarke, and Kingfish Ingram are among the few who are trying to keep the Blues alive here. So this clip just about knocked me over. Remi sounds like a blues singer you’re sure you’ve heard before, but can’t quite place. The guitar tone is pure throwback, dirty and distorted, but his solo is decidedly modern, which is the main giveaway that this is recent.
美しい棘 (Utsukushii Ibara) (“Beautiful Thorns”)
The first time I heard this, I imagined someone had found a previously unknown tape from around 1970. Imagine old Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green era) and the Allman Brothers doing a song together, with a mysterious, raspy-voiced female singer. This is what it would sound like:
