Interview with Dub Gabriel (Part 2 of 2) [Listen 31:40] Gathering the voices of the Revoultion with Dub Gabriel S04 Ep04
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Revolutions, remixes, and peace with Dub Gabriel 2
Special Guest: Dub Gabriel (Part 2 of 2): is a producer, DJ, multi-instrumentalist, and is one of the biggest names in dancehall, dubstep, and global bass to come out of the U.S. and is one of the most in-demand and respected dub producers in the world. He has worked with a diverse set of musicians including Michael Stipe (of REM), Reggae Toasting legend U-Roy, the Scientist, punk icon Keith Levene, David J, Balkan Beat Box, and many more. His new album “Raggabass Resistance” is an ambitious project taking three years to make, spanning continents and brings together an array of artists and musicians all collaborating on the album.
Dub Gabriel is set to release his 4th album, Raggabass Resistance, on limited vinyl on the 20th of April. The fantastic list of collaborators include: U-Roy, Warrior Queen, The Spaceape, Brother Culture, Jahdan Blakkamoore, Dr. Israel, MC Zulu, Juakali, PJ Higgins, David J, Pedro Erazo, and Mark Pistel
What's Going On?
David Bowie and Bon Jovi, battling it out on the charts. Dylan and ZZ Top putting out an album that made top ten on many lists. It's a world that seems more familiar in the early 70's than 2013. I'm not knocking the music, the music's pretty good. It's just that these events are a little unfamiliar in such a great quantity. I've always gone back, looking for gems throughout the ages and discovered some truly remarkable gems that shine timelessly. You might want to take a look at the Little Jimmy Scott interview that we did in the first season to get a grasp on what's out there when you do a little scratching. Click Here
But for these artists to be making such an impression on today's charts really seems unprecedented. To put this in perspective, it's more like Bing Crosby busting through the charts in the 70's amongst Led Zeppelin and Janis Joplin. Ya, those days saw great change in music, but for purposes of illumination, you see what I mean.
it's more like Bing Crosby busting through the charts in the 70's amongst Led Zeppelin and Janis Joplin.
Combative types might say that Tony Bennett had a hit record 1n 1970 with "Tony Sings the Hits of Today!", but that's not quite the same. And he's only one man, (yes Tony, you are) and there's more than just the occasional old rocker making it into today's charts and making an impact. The music's amazingly good from these stalwarts, and it's so much better to see than burnouts being pressured by record labels to turn out whatever crap gets made. But Besides the music being good, the question remains why these gentlemen still gather so much popularity. What might contribute to the success of these figureheads of the 70's is that classic rock stations seem to play the same songs, and while I won't criticise their success, I still can't stand to listen to a classic rock station. The songs never change. They really haven't changed for 20 years, and ya, most of the tunes they play are solid, but there's so much more that's good that doesn't get played, (I guess they don't stack up to advertisers ratings, etc.) But their popularity with the mainstream might depend, in part, to these classic rock stations that never change their rotation. Fancy that.
"Tony Sings the Hits of Today!"
Another reason why these greats of the classic rock era are continuing to produce is simply because people happen to be living longer. In the usual course of events a few decades earlier, statistics would have had these guys knocked off a decade ago. Heart attack, and stroke being the best candidates. Besides people generally living longer, it's the advancements in medical science that keeps the living going strong. Bowie already had a heart attack, and Dylan almost succumbed to a fungal infection in his lungs some 15 years ago. I suspect this trend will continue, and when it does, imagine what the music scene will be a few decades from now when we get some of the great pop divas still writing songs after they've got something like 90 years of experience of writing pop hits since their sexualized pre-teen breakout days! I can't wait.
Dub Gabriel Interview (Part 1 of 2) [Listen 30:43] Wondering about the revolution with Dub Gabriel S04 Ep04
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Revolutions, remixes, and peace with Dub Gabriel1 
Special Guest: Dub Gabriel (Part 1 of 2): is a producer, DJ, multi-instrumentalist, and is one of the biggest names in dancehall, dubstep, and global bass to come out of the U.S. and is one of the most in-demand and respected dub producers in the world. He has worked with a diverse set of musicians including Michael Stipe (of REM), Reggae Toasting legend U-Roy, the Scientist, punk icon Keith Levene, David J, Balkan Beat Box, and many more. His new album “Raggabass Resistance” is an ambitious project taking three years to make, spanning continents and brings together an array of artists and musicians all collaborating on the album.
Dub Gabriel is set to release his 4th album, Raggabass Resistance, on limited vinyl on the 20th of April. The fantastic list of collaborators include: U-Roy, Warrior Queen, The Spaceape, Brother Culture, Jahdan Blakkamoore, Dr. Israel, MC Zulu, Juakali, PJ Higgins, David J, Pedro Erazo, and Mark Pistel
http://www.dubgabriel.com/
Fall of Greenwich
Perhaps for most people, upon the mention of Greenwich Village, Bob Dylan immediately comes to mind. But besides Dylan, much more came out of Greenwich Village. Would you believe Maya Angelou sang blues there? By her own admission, not very well. But the artists and movements that came out of that "most significant square mile in American cultural history" are incredible and prolific. To get into everything notable that came out of there would fill a book; and has many, of course. The significance is so extensive and broad.
the artists and movements that came out of that "most significant square mile in American cultural history" are incredible and prolific.
Greenwich has been described as "the place where everything happens first." 
The setting and people who came to settle the area came to be accepting of differing cultures and ideas, perhaps out of necessity because of the different cultures brought in to live in close proximity in that polyglot population, not only Americans of different cultures and lifestyles, but also exiled Europeans just off the boat. But this acceptance, and true melting pot ideal carried on through the inhabitants and throughout generations despite outside attempts to gentrify the area and to push the settled inhabitants out through gross rent increases, police harassment, and the type of behaviour that has the same stink on it. Unfortunately, after all the inhabitants have survived, and the resistance of the community to these onslaughts, the final blow seems to have fallen, and Greenwich is now home to movie star royalty and top political retirees and their bastard children. Whatever America had culturally doesn't seem to hold any value against real estate profit and fashion outlets where you pay too much money to look like everyone else. This includes threatening to push out vinyl havens, Bleecker Street Records, and Bleecker Bob's. The more I learned about the Village and the fate that's befallen it has proven to be damn disappointing, but not sadly not shocking or unfamiliar, although it severely dampened any enthusiasm on writing the article which I was feeling initially.
this acceptance, and true melting pot ideal carried on through the inhabitants and throughout generations despite outside attempts to gentrify the area.
The independent documentary that sparked this article "The Ballad of Greenwich Village" doesn't do any justice to the scope of tragedy in losing the heritage. Mostly the documentary focuses on reminiscences of notable artists and persona from the area and shows one artist who's losing their home something of 30 years, but that doesn't show the death of a cultural and intellectual centre. Many residents have relocated nearby, and the historic buildings are to be preserved, but once something is killed, it's gone, despite the best attempts to revive and recreate it elsewhere. It's like trying to force yourself to have a sequel to a fantastic dream you recently had. You can pretend, but you can't will your unconscious.
once something is killed, it's gone, despite the best attempts to revive and recreate it elsewhere. It's like trying to force yourself to have a sequel to a fantastic dream you recently had. You can pretend, but you can't will your unconscious.
To demonstrate what forward thinking institutions that came out of there, Greenwich Village gave birth to the first racially integrated night club in the United States, Café Society. Which helped launch the careers of Sarah Vaughn, Big Joe Turner, and Lena Horne among others. And besides the American Folk Music Revival, new movements if not sparked from the Village, took root and were fostered there. The American Modernists, the Beats, the American Realists, and the Theatre of the Absurd all had a prominent place in the Village. The social and cultural significance the area has is now a simply a draw for cash and a tourist attraction. And what does it say to the eccentrics, intellectuals, and new bohemians across America and exiled forward thinkers? Make your own Mecca, it's not here any longer.
Watch the documentary here: http://ww3.tvo.org/video/162855/ballad-greenwich-village
Keith Levene Interview (Part 1 of 2) [Listen 37:10 min]- Slashing Through The Rules With Keith Levene S03 Ep08
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S03 Ep08 (Part1 of 2) - Slashing Through Rules With Keith Levene
Special Guest: Keith Levene is a punk rock icon. He started off his career as one of the founding members of the Clash – helping write some of the bands' early songs like "What's My Name", only to leave before they recorded their first album. His next project was another short lived but significant band, The Flowers of Romance, which consisted of Sid Vicious (pre Sex Pistols days) as well as Palmolive and Viv Albertine just before they formed the Slits. But Keith Levene is probably most famous for his unique guitar style and his powerful song writing skills in the band, Public Image Limited, which included the lead singer of the recently defunct Sex Pistols, Johnny Rotten, a.k.a. John Lydon as well as a then unknown bass player by the name of Jah Wobble. PiL, as they became to be known changed the direction of punk for good taking it away from the pre-packaged punk music created by people like Malcolm McLaren and veering into completely uncharted territories with classic albums like First Edition, The Flowers of Romance, and their landmark album, Metal Box (or known in the states as Second Edition). Keith Levene recently teamed up with his old bandmate, Jah Wobble, and have a new album titled Yin and Yang out on Cherry Red Records.
In this podcast, we talk about his guitar style, the newish album Yin and Yang and some of the songs and concepts on the album, we touch upon drugs and his experiences and thoughts, the Beatles, what dub music was like growing up and he gives a shout out to Dub Gabriel.
BTW since the recording of this interview (back on December 6) Keith Levene has released a new album titled Search4AbsoluteZero that I think will be one of the best releases of 2013.
Buy it here: http://keithlevene.com/
Keith Levene
Whether you're a fan of the British punk/post-punk scene or not, the influence that just a few individuals had upon the world's music scene is monumental. Really, for what impact they've made, they simply aren't famous enough. The tangents and avenues opened up from this scene (small as it was in the beginning) has had a profound and lasting effect on music that still reverberates today, and I'm not simply speaking of punk music/genre itself and all the off-shoots, but of contemporary music in general. Punk got in there and wormed it's influence into whatever music wanted to be seen as contemporary, somewhere, at some point. Enough credit isn't paid to the originators. And the originators really come down to just a small collection of people. If you want to go by today's measure of whether music is good by judging the degree of separation to Brian Eno, then Levene and the crew are in very good standing. One doesn't have to look far for that connection. I'm sure that some people who know the dub and ambient type of work Eno & Wobble produced would say that it's a far cry from punk for there to be an influence, but I'm saying that there is a punk influence there; and to prove otherwise, one would really have to go to the source and ask them specifically. I'm betting that they'd say that punk has an influence in whatever they do at least to some degree. Really, the argument could be made that punk imparts itself despite whatever they would say. To be involved in the formation of a scene, and such a shift from the current scene, and at such a impressionable time in one's age has to have a lasting effect in the foundation of a person's being, especially a scene that attracted so much attention, fury, and controversy.
Even the formation of punk itself has its controversy; some say that it all was a manufactured orchestration from Malcolm McLaren, but we'll leave that debate as it is and focus more on Keith Levine.
One could say that Levene has had his hand in the punk/post-punk cookie jar more than any others through being involved with Public Image Limited (PiL), The Clash, the short lived, but notable band, Flowers of Romance, and not forgetting Pigface, (although nearly everyone in a band is a member of Pigface, and probably even you) plus his courtship with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone, and not only with his physical presence, but his playing style has had a far reaching influence; The Edge from U2 gets referenced most often, but there are many more that owe a great deal to his style, many probably don't know it, but his influence has spread far and shaped so much, and he doesn't get his due credit, and that's really a shame.
All this, ironically, comes from someone who first stepped into the music scene by becoming a roadie for the very non-punk, but progressive, and symphonic band "Yes." Ironic because punk is supposed to be the kick-in-the-teeth counter-action to the music and bands that had grown to such a degree to be something in awe of its own manifestation. Strangely, Levene doesn't classify himself as a punk, rather he calls himself a hippie. One has to wonder now, why it is that of any musicians that have been interviewed here on Going Thru Vinyl, that it's the musicians that call themselves hippies but play music far outside the "hippie" spectrum that seem to be the happiest with where they are today with their music (ref. John McLaughlin). In fact, when Levene talks of leaving the Clash, he says that the parting wasn't on bad terms at all, but that he simply said that the music just wasn't for him. His departure from PiL wasn't the same by any means, (he was a founding member, and spent 5 years within the band, plus was a profound influence in their sound), but those were different days, and his departure was under different circumstances. The truth of the matter is hidden behind great clashing egos. Unfortunately, his departure came just before PiL's tour in Japan. It's clear, from listening to Levene in the interview, what an impact this split from PiL had on him, and still does to this day. It's clear when he speaks of his ambition to play Tokyo in 2013.
Levene labels himself a hippie, but speaks not in idealisms, but with candour, pragmatism, and ingtegrity. His views on heroin use are particularly poignant.
Considering their experiences, one could forgive them all for being road weary, yet, they're at it again - producing music, releasing albums, and touring. Levene most recently with his own release "Search 4 Absolute Zero", Wobble with Levene - "Yin & Yang", and John Lydon with another manifestation of PiL, "This is PiL". And one has to wonder why, for being as old as they are, and all that they've been through, for all to be producing music so far above expectation. Judging against their peers, one has to think that maybe they had the right idea at the beginning - an ethos of being and of music as an anti-production, but simply of being, despite convention and politeness for the sake of the status quo. It's unfortunate that something was too passionate and honest that it become the cause of it's own destruction, but these men still carry the glowing embers that once sparked a revolution.
- Guthrie Alan Corwin
Parting Thoughts:
As you probably know David Bowie is bringing out an new album (The Next Day) due out in March. I thought I would remind our listeners that we have two Bowie related podcasts already up and hope to have a few new ones by the time the album comes out. Also I thought I would give a shout-out to a fellow Bowie fan Adam Dean (of Bowie Downunder) who has probably the most up-to-date unofficial Bowie website out there. So here`s a link to that: http://www.bowiedownunder.com/
Lastly, we are really excited to announce that Dub Gabriel has agreed to come on the show! We highly recommend him and his music and think you should check him out. Here is a link to his site: http://destroyallconcepts.bandzoogle.com/home.cfm