I got turned onto the Peddlers from Mojoto on this site. Now I've been grabbing all I can get. Sometimes funky, often smarmy. Reminds me of a mix between Scott Walker and Tom Jones.
I own pretty much every Jorge Ben album, and I can say that this song is easily in my all-time top 5 Ben tracks. Only that it isn't on any of them!! An updated (and much-improved) version of a song he wrote for Gilberto Gil in 1968 called "Queremos Guerra," this is two minutes and 53 seconds of pure, propulsive joy. Charging, upbeat rhythm, an infectious hook, Jorge at his rocking best.
My favourite House Of Love song, it's a mid-paced typically guitar-drenched track with an insistent percussive backing and that low ostinato guitar riff with the little flourish in it. It has lots of minor chords which give it a rather gloomy feel (like many of my favourite songs). Actually their later song "Feel", which was one of the '90s best, could be "Shake And Crawl" slowed almost to a literal crawl ...
from The House Of Love (2), available on CD (Fontana)
22 May 03 ·Genza: I liked the House of Love - and 'Christine' is a genre-defining classic. But like many of the other sub-Valentines clones (Chapterhouse, Boo Radleys, etc.), I thought some of their tunes suffered from being slow and uneventful. Like you, I love minor chords - but I think other bands did that multi-layered guitar sound better. But hey, it's just my opinion and all that. 10 Dec 03 ·lobo: The House of Love were brilliant and way ahead of their time, not to mention sadly overlooked in the pages of pop music history. They were hardly "Sub-Valentine Clones" - the band's sound dates back to their origins in 1986. The members of My Bloody Valentine were struggling to define their sound at that point (they were still working through their goth phase!). Guy Chadwick was a masterful songwriter and Terry Bickers was the preeminent guitarist of his time. Nobody knew their way around a stack of effects pedals better than him. Best songs: Safe, Christine, Destroy the Heart, Loneliness Is A Gun... This band's music is nothing short of superb.
This is a track of off Dearie's second Fontana album "That's Just The Way I Want To Be". An overlooked gem of a record, unusual sounding for Blossom, blending together jazz, bossa nova and folk with nicely arranged orchestration. "Sweet Surprise" has a dream-like, airy feel with it's jazzy waltz rhythm. The album is available on the japanese "Whisper for you" compilation. Unfortunately, her first Fontana album "Soon It's Gonna Rain" from 1967, featuring lots of Jobim and Bacharach songs, has yet to be released on CD.
from That's Just The Way I Want To Be (Fontana) available on CD - Whisper For You
04 Dec 03 ·FlyingDutchman1971: The album 'Thats Just the Way I Want To Be' is now available on CD. There is also a really good Japanese compilation CD of the Fontana and Verve years called 'For Cafe Apres-midi'. Several tracks from 'Soon Its Gonna Rain' are featured so those of us who love Blossom will have to savor these meager crumbs unless the evil music overlords open the vaults. 05 Dec 03 ·eftimihn: You're right and i forgot to mention the "For Cafe Apres-midi" compilation, this one features all tracks of "That's Just The Way To Be" except one track (they left out the opening track, not a bad choice though since it's the weakest track on the album and not quite fitting to the rest of the songs). Unfortunately there are just 2 songs from "Soon It's Gonna Rain", Meditation and Dindi, on it. But these sound absolutely gorgeous, arranged with some very cool harp embellishments. Too bad the entire album hasn't been picked up by some japanese label yet. 28 Oct 04 ·konsu: Great song, great album, great singer/composer. Why she's not completely worshipped in the USA I have no idea. I really have to disagree with eftimihn on the opening track, it's in my opinion one of the coolest things she ever did! Sure her jazzy renditions of evergreens and her more hip stuff are great, but to stretch out like she does on "That's Just the Way" is just sublime. What was she doing there? Some kind of CA inspired latin/folk/psyche-pop? Genius! True, it isn't like the rest of the album... Also her great take on Frishbergs "Long Daddy Green" is worth mentioning for it's uniqueness.
