All Pearls, No Swine: Boldly into the future, with our backs turned looking down the past

I mentioned in last week's Gene Clark entry for the latest volume of We've Got You Covered that some series take long breaks in between installments because, while I have a general base of things to post, I sometimes get excited and or distracted by a new project which then pushes some stuff to the backburner. That's also what happens to the granddaddy of 'em all, the series that started when this blog did. The debit of All Pearls No Swine has slowed down to one to two in a month, but that doesn't mean that I'm not happy to go back to what will stay a fundamental piece of One Buck Records. Not to mention, that there might not be anything new under the sun, but All Pearls No Swine can still break new ground. 

Originally conceived to present less known hidden gems from (mainly) the 70s and a little bit creeping into the 80s, the series finally pushed into the 90s, then the 2000s, and with today's volume into muisc from the last decade and a half. Or, more precisely, the last decade and change, as I compiled this one in 2023 I believe. But yeah, APNS has caught up to the almost present day. That doesn't mean that somehow this new volume is full of trap, electronica and whatever passes for hip hop these days. Nope, proudly this volume withstands all attempts to be modern or 'with it' (not something the kids would say... I don't know...it's the riz, something like that?!). Either way, I do like Bob Seger in "Old Time Rock'n'Roll" grumbling against disco, declare that trap is crap and continue with artists and songs that might be from current artists (and some not so current ones), but lookinto the past, much like this blog and its owner does.

What he said...

The 2010s are the decade when I finally gave up on the modern music scene. I had followed most of what was current, if not necessarily mainstream, throughout the 2000s, investigated and often bought highly praised (from trustworthy sources) releases and was generally au courant with what was going on, even if the charts were obviously something that hasn't had anything of interest for me for years. But in the mid-2010s my interest slowd down, as did my buying new music. I remember 2013 as being the last time being really invested in (for me) new artists, when I bought Jonathan Wilson's Fanfare and Israel Nash Gripka's Rain Plans, one of the perpetual 'bestsellers' on this blog and a genuinely great album. I was also following whatever Jason Isbell released, but also dropped some old favorites from thorughout the 2000s along the way. When Lucinda Williams' voice and quality control gave out within years of each other, I cut the cord. After one more underwhelming release I dropped Ryan Adams completely etc. And I didn't bother to replace most of them with other artists - I mean Isbell for Adams was a clear upgrade - and turned my eyes more and more towards the past. Why waste time with the mediocre or worse music of today when there is so much great music to discover or rediscover in the past?

Thus, All Pearls, No Swine. Thus, One Buck Records. 

But I digress. 

A logical consequence is, though, that most of the contemporary artists assembled here, have a retro bent to them. This is also true for most of the aforementioned artists are of course part of the line-up: Jason Isbell with the Trump protest song "Hope The High Road", that unfortunately couldn't be more current today, something he no doubt didn't see happening in 2018. Israel Nash's "Woman At The Well" with its echoey vocals and a relatively jaunty arrangement shows the Topanga Canyon spirit waving through Rain Plans. And Jonathan Wilson is featured with a song from Fanfare's follow-up Rare Birds, hat traded that very Topanga Canyon sound for a sharp turn into 8s synth rock. Pastiche it might still be, but it's quality pastiche. The same is true of Farq's faves, the terribly named Garcia Peoples, who do very good mimicry of that very sound, as can be heard on compilation closer "Here We Are". Both Wilson and Gracia Peoples take their mimicry so far as to indulge in rather unusually long running times, so both versions are edited for a better flow. 

C'mon, you thought these guys were from the 70s, right...?!

A band I discovered relatively recently and which will soon (hopefully...) be featured is Blackberry Smoke (above), a modern Southern rock band from Atlanta, whose mix of rock'n'roll and country is precisely up my alley, exactly because it sounds like it could have come straight from the 70s. Modern folk ensemble Cawlings' "Hold On" could have come from any decade discussed here, but more likely the 70s as well, whereas the lovely power pop of the already featured Jonathan Kupersmith could have come straight out of the early 80s. Very fine Kiwi singer-songwriter (and occasional actor, he was in Sweet Tooth) Marlon Williams covers  Bob Carpenter's fantastic Silent Passage from the awesome album of the same name. OBG faves Midlake 

Finally, good old fashioned rock'n'roll may be dead charts-wise, but featured here are two young hold outs who can rock with the best of them: The Luka State with "Feel It" and Italian group Maneskin with "Zitti E Bueno", the song that won them the European Song Contest four years ago.  WIth an actually good song, for once! And if you like your rock a little old school, groove to compilation opener "I Will" by indie rock veterans Sebadoh! "Zitti E Bueno" isn't the only non-English language song on here, as I also stumbled onto Australian Aboriginal arist Mitch Tambo, whose version of John Farnham's classic "You're The Voice" is an absolute corker. 

Maneskin certainly have their very own style...

I mentioned in one of the paragraphs above, that there is no shame in replacing an artist you liked by another, which can be applied to Young rebel Set's "Measure Of A Man" which sounds like a dead ringer for a Mumford & Sons song, before the band turned to shitty MOR arena rock for no good reason. And finally a word about singer-songwriter Glen Clark, not the one from Delbert & Glen, but rather anothe Kiwi singer-songwriter, who is also dabbling in visual arts. His song "1665" is ostensibly about the Great Plague of London in the same year, but seems to be eerily prescient of the then just strted Covid outbreak and its circumstances. "We watched the well-to-do escape.."...well, didn't most of us? Most other stuff from Clark hasn't graabbed me, and he isn't a particularly strong vocalist, but check out the genuinely impressive video underneath. 

So, despite the retro proclivities of One Buck Records and its friendly neighbourhood blogs like Jokonky's or Babs' place, good contemporary musicn isn't dead. It's just much more hidden from public view. All Pearls, No Swine brings some of it to light. So enjoy these pearls from the last decade and change...

P.S.: Feel free to go wild on the linked to albums, all music links have been upped...