MP3 Black Angel - O´ San Francisco

Rock n roll in the style of The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

17 MP3 Songs in this album (76:20) !
Related styles: ROCK: Rock & Roll, ROCK: Classic Rock

People who are interested in Bob Dylan The Rolling Stones Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers should consider this download.


Details:
Paper Thin Walls is an online Music Magazine from New York City that annually asks major music writers to select a Song Of The Year. The article below was written by Billboard Magazine senior music editor, Chuck Eddy, in regard to Black Angel and their song,
âOne Beerâ. Prior to his work at Billboard, Chuck Eddy was the music editor of The Village Voice in New York for seven years and worked for Rolling Stone magazine.

Song of The Year 2007



BLACK ANGEL - âOne Beerâ
from O' California (Outsiders)
by CHUCK EDDY, SENIOR MUSIC EDITOR, BILLBOARD MAGAZINE, NEW YORK, NY




As far as I can tell, Black Angelânot to be confused with less-good Jesus And Mary Chain-style Austin drone-pop band the Black Angelsâhave for a few years been four people who primarily play their shows (apparently lots of them) at clubs (frequently mid-sized) in Southern California; their newest members, according to their MySpace page (at the time of this review), are âAudrey Turner (currently and previously with the Ike Turner Review and now Mrs. Ike Turner) as a vocalist and Ronnie Turner (only son of both Tina and Ike Turner) on bass.â That makes them a sextetâthough that number still appears to be somewhat in flux.

Black Angel are also the only musical artists Iâm aware of who put out two really good albums full of new material in 2007âat least if you count December 2006, which technically is when they apparently released the 16-song Oâ California, as 2007. In June they followed that record up with the 17-song Oâ Santa Barbara (called Oâ Santa Babylon on its back cover), which has a really similar-looking CD artwork (basically, a map of a piece of the coastline with some indigenous fruit attached) but completely different songs. And now their MySpace page is reporting that their next album Oâ Los Angeles, is recorded, mixed and mastered. âWe just have to finish the artwork and then manufacture the album later this year.â So I guess that one will come out in 2008.

Black Angel also pull off quite possibly the most dead-on and single-minded approximation of â70s country-leaning (think âDead Flowersâ/âWild Horsesâ/âFool To Cryâ/âWhen The Whip Comes Downâ/âFar Away Eyesâ) Rolling Stones Iâve ever heard. Their MySpace lists âRolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Hank Williams, Henry Miller and John Lennonâ as influences and says they sound like âRolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Dr. Hook And The Medicine Show, Black Crowes, Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers, Leon Russell, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen and Elvis Presley (we wish),â and all that might well be true. But everything on that list after the Stones is gravy, and Iâm honestly wondering if Dr. Hook and Dylan are on there just because they both have famous songs with âRolling Stoneâ in the titleâwhyâd they leave out Muddy Waters, I wonder? (Best Tom Petty song of 2007, for whatever itâs worth: âSheâs So Californiaâ by Gary Allan. Best Black Angel-sounding country-Stones-style song not recorded by Black Angel of 2007: The 6:45 âYoung Lions In Paradise,â off Blue Cheerâs otherwise much heavier and more metal What Doesnât Kill You... album. Iâm not joking.)

Black Angelâs greatest songâthe one for the history booksâis Oâ Californiaâs âOne Beer,â and not only because it ingeniously managed to forecast the 2007 Grammy Awards by toasting with one beer each both âMary J. Blige, the queen of hip-hop soulâ and âthe Dixie Chicks, the queens of Texas soul.â (The nominations had been made in early December of 2006, but I assume the song was recorded before then.)

ââOne Beer,ââ writes my friend and PTW contributor Frank Kogan, âsounds like country by people who first love Stones Stones Stones ahead of country, and thatâs fine with me; funny Exile murk (thatâs a compliment, by the way, even if the murk is one of the reasons Exile is not in my Top 10 Stones albs [also self-effacement, also shortage of songs]). Not as good as the Stones, unsurprisingly, but worth a second listen.â

I listened to the song way more than twice, myself. And itâs only ânot as good as the Stonesâ if you ignore everything the Stones have done in the last quarter-century-plus (including their last album A Bigger Bang, which was surprisingly good actually, but never as good as âOne Beer.â) And there is way more than one beer in the song: Amidst J.C. Martinâs somewhat sloshedly (not to mention, it should go without saying by now, Jaggerishly) slurred lyric, I count 18 such beverages total, though I canât guarantee I didnât miss any. Thatâs three six packs or three-quarters of a case (though hopefully on tap, since the band is clearly not at home on their living room couches but rather out in public [you can tell by the opening saloon-piano part], so if theyâre drinking canned or bottled beers theyâre totally getting ripped off, and did I ever explain my theory of how Stella on tap, which is one of the best beers in the world, is an entirely different beer than Stella in bottles, which is one of the worst? Not to mention my theory that one good way to lose weight is just to order beers you donât like very much in bars, since that way you wonât drink as many? OK, never mind.) Anyway, letâs see here: Along with the beers for the Dixie Chicks and Mary J. Blige, Black Angel hoist âone beerâ each (well, actually sometimes one beer twice each, since most the songâs lyric is recited twice within the songâs perimeters) for âthe pain,â âthe road,â âthe Lord,â the devil,â âCanada,â âthe rose of San Antone,â and âevery [incomprehensible word] Pentecostal Jack-Mormon fooool Iâve ever known.â For starters.

They look a black woman (who they call âa black womanâ) right in the eye and she tells them to embrace the mystery; they drive their Oldsmobile (or maybe their Uncle Bill?) down to Mexico and meet a fortune teller there; the singer calls himself âa country boy down at 7-11â then chases a dragon to the store and asks directions to Desolation Rowâall in 3:17. Beyond all the beers, Iâm not going to pretend to grasp what most of it means, to be honest, and I donât really care. As Montgomery Gentry would say, I feel a cold one cominâ on.

Black Angel lead vocalist/guitarist J.C. Martin on âOne Beerâ

âOne Beerâ was released in December 2006, the same month that Mary J Blige and the Dixie Chicks were both nominated for several Grammy Awards. Was that a coincidence? Or are you fortune tellers, like the one in the song?
When I saw Mary J. Blige with U2 singing the song âOneââwas that at the Grammys? I canât rememberâI picked up my old 1972 Martin guitar and immediately wrote the song in about one half hour. I never write this quickly. I am usually like Bob Dylan and Tom Pettyâplaying a song for weeks until my wife screams, âEnough with that song.â This one just popped out. I had been really pissed off at how the Dixie Chicks were âblacklistedâ by radio after their very true comments about George Bush. I also grew up Pentecostalâwith a huge rebellious streakâin a very right wing, Republican, military household

In what ways do the concepts behind Oâ California, Oâ Santa Barbara and Oâ Los Angeles differ from each other?
I was broke for quite awhile but I kept writing songs nonetheless. When I finally had money to record more songs, I had three albums of material ready to go. I had already recorded Oâ Santa Barbara with just our drummer, Tina Stefens, and me. Tina works for the Goleta Post Office. The only time that we played this entire album live was for a 10 a.m. show at the Creekside Inn in Santa Barbara for the night shift at the Goleta Post Office. A few months later a disgruntled, female post office employee walked into the Goleta Post Office and killed six postal employees, all of whom had attended our morning show a few months earlier.

Anyway, when I got enough money, Tina and I worked out the entire Oâ California album, recorded it⦠I had still more songs recorded and the songs became the still unreleased Oâ Los Angeles album. I had read a bookâor was it a story?âyears ago called âOâ Jerusalem.â I loved this title. The idea here is that many people who live in California didnât start out here. For instance, I was born in Illinois, then lived in Alaska, Oregon, Okinawa and New Mexico before coming to California when I was 15 years old. The Oâ California album is basically about my experiences of living in California. The Oâ Santa Barbara album was all written and recorded in Santa Barbara with people who live in Santa Barbara. The Oâ Los Angeles album is made up of songs that were worked out when Black Angel was located in Los Angeles from about 1999 to 2001.

I counted 18 beers in âOne Beer.â First off, is my math correct? And second off, are they all Heinekens?
Chuck, I have no idea how many âOne Beersâ we placed in the song⦠Thanks for adding them up, though. No, I didnât have a particular beer in mind, but I do have a preference for Heineken ever since I lived in the U.S. Virgin Islands for a year, and I drink a lot of it.