Tag: 1996

16 Horsepower – Sackcloth ‘n’ Ashes (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week2 Comments

This week’s pick is a revisit of a 90’s album from a band that bucked popular music standards and set their own course with a mix of old-timey music and deep/dark spiritual lyrics. The music would not fit any particular scene but also capture the attention of many different scenes.

16 Horsepower – Sackcloth ‘n’ Ashes

Released February 6, 1996 via A&M Records

My Favorite Tracks – Black Soul Choir, American Wheeze, Harm’s Way

16 Horsepower was an American band comprised of singer and multi-instrumentalist David Eugene Edwards, Jean-Yves Tola on drums and Keven Soll on upright bass and cello. The band’s lineup would change over the years with the constant being Edwards at the helm.

One big issue with 16 Horsepower is categorizing their music. They aren’t country, though they did slot into the alt-country movement of the late 1990’s. The music has elements of country, bluegrass and other scenes but doesn’t necessarily have its own overall description. The term “Gothic Americana” has been used to describe them and is probably as accurate as anything. It is a lot of banjo, accordion and other unconventional instruments that shape the sound here.

The lyrics of 16 Horsepower were infused with Edwards’ religious upbringing. These aren’t overt “praise” songs or anything but there is definitely a religious bent to them. The music was not embraced by Christian outlets for not being standard praise fare and was also often dismissed in secular circles for talking about religion at all. But I don’t feel “preached to” when I listen to it, rather I feel like I’m getting a person’s own experiences and perspective communicated to me. I’m being sung to, not talked at.

The album is not overly long at 48 minutes but there are 13 songs to talk about. I am going to go through a lot of them very briefly to save space, but rest assured this is a highly recommended album from front to back.

I Seen What I Saw

It’s off to a hot start as a guy sees something that isn’t good, then gets on his horse and rides off. While any greater meaning isn’t obvious, this song is pretty powerful with the instrumentation and Edward’s vocal delivery.

Black Soul Choir

Next we have what is widely considered the “hit” off the album and one of the band’s most recognized songs. Black Soul Choir is a uptempo, banjo-driven piece that presents its religious underpinnings more clearly. This is a masterpiece of a song and is often the “first one” for many 16 HP fans. Metal band DevilDriver did a cover of this song in 2011 as well.

Scrawled In Sap

This is a very trippy and atmospheric track that gets into what appears to be an adulterous relationship. It’s very well done and another of my favorites from the record.

Horse Head

A very nice and twisted dirge about some whiskey and chairs, and also some kind of dust-up over something and a guy biting the big one in the end. This is a very dark and grimy track and far outside the bounds of “praise” music.

Ruthie Lingle

An upbeat number about a young man hoping he can hook up with any number of women. I can’t find the interview where Edwards talked about it, but if my memory serves, Ruthie was an actual girl from his childhood that he was sweet on.

Harm’s Way

This song is absolutely sick, meant in the best possible way. Another accordion-led dirge that gets to the failings of life and also the simple beauty of it. The lyrics are also quietly kind of brutal in spots, there’s some dark stuff going on here.

Black Bush

Another really good banjo piece with more, perhaps opaque, religious imagery. A clouded meaning does not deter from a very enjoyable song, though.

Heel On The Shovel

This song is, if not all the way there, at least directly next to country music. It’s a good ol’ tune about vengeance and death and “reaping what you sow.” The fate of the target is pretty grim, in a grave simply to be used as fertilizer for daisies. Such is life and death, I guess.

American Wheeze

A very gripping tune about a guy off to a duel against someone who feels slighted. The specific grievance is not aired, but the narrator is prepared to die for his side of it.

Red Neck Reel

The music is fast and fun, but the lyrics are a fairly dour look at small-town life and how everyone knows everyone’s business. A nice tune either way.

Prison Shoe Romp

Almost a bit of a metal track here, or at least a pretty heavy tune though still steeped in the old time music.

Neck On The New Blade

Not really sure what’s going on lyrically but the song is another low-down one.

Strong Man

The album ends with a dirge about a condemned man who apparently really needs to be put down. The song ends with some references to Christ so I almost wonder if that’s not who it’s about but again, it’s a bit hard to tell.

Sackcloth ‘n’ Ashes was a brilliant debut full-length for the group that defied categorization and 1000% did their own thing. There is no chart or single information to share, 16 Horsepower were always a more underground and independent phenomenon. They would gain traction over in Europe through their run but were never a “hit” of any kind.

The main draw of this album and the 16 Horsepower catalog in general is the authenticity of the old-time sound. The music invokes the feel of the old days, this honestly sounds like what I’d expect to hear traveling through the desolate west. This isn’t a modern homage to music of the past, it is that music done in a modern setting. I can feel the dirt and grit of the landscape that these songs are set in, as well as the darkness of the songs and their weight.

16 Horsepower would run from 1992 through 2005. After their dissolution David Eugene Edwards would focus on his other project Wovenhand, which runs to this day and has performed 16 HP songs live in their sets. 16 Horsepower never achieved fame but they have been a known and celebrated act among those who remember them and the many, like me, who discovered them after their split. This is one of those acts that not a lot of people know, but those who know, know.

A Story And A Song – Merci

On By bigbadburchIn A Story And A Song6 Comments

This story has to do with buying music in a strange land, far away from home. For the song I’ll choose one from one of the two albums I bought that day – Pantera’s The Great Southern Trendkill was one of my pickups at a mall in France at some point in 1996.

War Nerve was one of the album’s signature songs. Like much of the record it is harsh, abrasive and even more heavy and savage than anything from their 1994 offering Far Beyond Driven, which was (and likely still is) the heaviest album in history to hit number one on the Billboard charts. …Trendkill would hit number four on the same charts and also slot in during Pantera’s time at the top of the metal heap in the mid-1990’s.

War Nerve is a song that sees frontman Phil Anselmo lashing out at how the media portrays him. While he had some room for argument there, he has also historically given the media more than enough material to work with. Whatever the circumstances, the song is a savage onslaught and is one of my favorite tracks from the album.

Now for the story. As I said, I was in France at some point in 1996. I honestly don’t remember which city we were even in – I am over 90% certain it was Marseilles but it possibly was Cannes. This is when I was in the US Navy and was in Europe for most of the late 90’s. Memories are a bit fuzzy after all these years but we were definitely in France and one of the cities on the Riviera, that much is certain.

A handful of us music die-hards went to the shopping mall to hunt for albums. Of course CDs were the format of the day and also a very easy to use format when living on a Navy ship. And the mall wasn’t much different from an American mall – maybe a bit less garish and more along the lines of a sterile department store, but it had a bunch of stores selling a bunch of shit so there we go.

I was in the mall and found a few CDs I wanted. I went to check out at the register. A quite lovely woman was behind the register and she rang up my purchase. She told me the total in French, a language I don’t speak. Thankfully the register was like one over here that displays the total so I could read how much money I was supposed to hand her. This was a few years before the Euro became the currency of the continent so I was using francs and wasn’t radically familiar with how many francs a dollar was worth and all of that.

I gave her the money and she handed me my change, then in the snottiest, rudest voice possible told me “merci.” And the look on her face matched the utter contempt in her voice. This woman did everything in her power to murder me with her eyes and her voice. I quickly gathered my CDs and got the hell out of there.

I obviously have no actual explanation for her attack upon my person. Most likely she was offended that I did not speak French. It was (and I guess still is, I don’t know) a thing that many French people were not into Americans who couldn’t communicate over there. It has always been my assumption about the episode. Maybe she was just having a bad day, but she seemed pleasant enough when I first got to the counter. Or maybe she found Pantera distasteful, I don’t know.

I find it a little odd, since it was probably common news that several hundred Americans were running around the city. I wasn’t even the only US Navy person there at the time I was in the store, and I know for sure that other non-French speaking US sailors went to the same store. Maybe she just got fed up with communication barriers and I was the one she took it out on, I don’t know.

And I don’t mean to type this as some customer service complaint from 26 years ago or anything. I’m just filling space in a post and recalling an amusing story from buying music overseas. It was more funny than anything and I hope the woman had a better day after I left her death gaze. I got my CDs in the end and all was well for me.

That’s essentially the story, nothing more to note. No one else that I talked to on the ship had any kind of run-in at that store, though many more seasoned vets did recount similar incidents with the French in their travels.

I guess there is one other bit of information – what is the other CD I bought? Like how The Great Southern Trendkill was a new release at the time, so was the Scorpions’ Pure Instinct. And anyone who has heard that album can easily figure out why I chose to feature Pantera.

Oasis – Knebworth 1996 (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week4 Comments

This Album of the Week will be a deluxe edition. I am going to cover an album, Blu-Ray and documentary. It was a few weeks back that the entire package of the Oasis – Knebworth album and film came to retail shelves and now it’s time to get into the astonishing amount of material within.

Oasis – Live At Knebworth

Released November 19, 2021 via Big Brother Records

My Favorite Tracks – Slide Away, Acquiesce, Columbia

The Album

The official live record compiles the entire setlist of both shows, though this compilation borrows from both shows to make one record. I suppose a completionist might have rather have both shows in full as an audio offering, though this stitched-together effort does a fine job of showcasing the gigs.

The songs are presented in order from the shows, the setlist did not deviate between the two nights. Almost all of the songs are slightly truncated versions of their studio counterparts – the structure is verse-chorus-verse-chorus and close, things were kept simple for the massive concerts. Set opener Columbia loses over a minute from its studio runtime, and everything besides Champagne Supernova has a bit of fluff trimmed off.

The song selection is almost completely spot on – 5 songs from the debut album, 8 from the seminal What’s The Story…, 5 non-album cuts and 2 tracks from the band’s next release Be Here Now. There is only one glaring omission from the chosen set and that’s a point addressed in the documentary – Rock N’ Roll Star is a perfect tune for the energetic festival performance. For some reason the band wasn’t playing it at all during this touring cycle.

For this massive scale performance the band would necessarily leave some nuance behind and put more force behind the musical presentation. Even with that, songs like The Masterplan and Wonderwall get string arrangements to accompany them, and horns join in on Round Are Way (which also sees the chorus of Up In The Sky sneak in at the end). Even the melancholy Cast No Shadow translates well to the stadium-sized performance.

If any one song loses a bit of something to the noise of Knebworth, it’s Don’t Look Back In Anger. Noel simply turns up his guitar and slams through the song. While the rendition is fine, it is a song that could have benefited from an arrangement of some sort. It is not a large disappointment but it is a note to be made out of the set.

Of course, Oasis has no shortage of hard hitting tracks that translate very well on the big stage. Supersonic, Cigarettes And Alcohol, Some Might Say and Morning Glory all stand out in the noise and power of 125,000 people. And the second song Acquiesce, a celebrated B-side that probably suffers from not having a proper album release, is an especially on-fire version of the song. Liam’s snarl through the verses is beautifully matched by Noel’s more delicate delivery of the chorus and the song absolutely stands out in the Knebworth gigs.

One track stands out above the others from Knebworth. It has been long known among Oasis diehards that the Sunday performance of Slide Away is perhaps the definitive version of that song and many consider it the band’s best live offering ever. While I haven’t checked out other landmark gigs enough to make such a determination, I will say that Slide Away absolutely hits on this live set. It is a complete monster performance, that much is certain.

In the end, the choice to piece an official Knebworth album from both nights works well. The diehards who wish to have both nights on audio probably already do digitally or in bootleg form, so it’s not a disservice to the product to patch this set together from both nights. Many celebrated live albums have gone that route in order to deliver the best possible experience.

And it’s nice to finally have one of the band’s historic gigs in official form. Oasis only released one live album during their tenure while Knebworth and other massively-celebrated concerts have been relegated to bootleg or YouTube status. A superfan will of course hope that Earl’s Court, Maine Road and other landmark gigs from this and other tours will get official releases in the future, but whether or not that happens is impossible to say.

The Blu-Ray

The video presentation of Knebworth offers the theatrical documentary as well as both concert sets in full. While we did not get an complete official audio package, the video side does deliver with both nights.

The footage does a good job of joining high definition content with more grainy film from 1996. I didn’t have a problem with how the video played out, it was all put together well. There isn’t a lot else that needs to be said – both shows are here for anyone who wants to get into them.

The Documentary

The centerpiece of the Knebworth package is the documentary filmed earlier this year to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the gigs. It was an historic occasion for Oasis and so Noel chose to honor the memory with this deluxe offering.

The film is very well-done and does not offer a dry run through historical facts, nor is it some hollow puff piece that kisses the band’s ass while not offering anything of real value. The filmmakers chose to let the fans tell the story of Knebworth and it’s a choice that makes this documentary stand out from many other music films.

The film runs through the build up to the concerts – the pain of getting tickets, finding a way to the shows, and getting on the grounds and up front when there. There is no central narrator – most of the story is told by the fans, while Noel and Bonehead also contribute thoughts. Liam only speaks briefly at the end, perhaps owing to how shitfaced he reportedly was on the night between the two shows. Also of note is that no modern-day footage of anyone from the band is shown – everything is from that weekend in 1996 or recreations of fans’ experiences.

I don’t know how well the film would play out for someone who isn’t a fan of Oasis. Some documentaries can be compelling viewing even if a person isn’t a fan of the subject, but Knebworth is very much a fan service film. It doesn’t offer up a lot to someone who doesn’t have a vested interest in the band and isn’t an accounting of facts and figures – it’s the true story of that weekend in August 1996.

The fans tell their stories of that weekend – a young man who found out his girlfriend was pregnant just before arriving at the shows, the requisite group of lads who drove a junk car across the country, and a couple of girls who were able to score tickets early Sunday morning with just enough time to get to the festival grounds. One woman’s story about her brother, told as the band ran through The Masterplan, is especially touching and a standout moment from the film that truly captures the weight of these concerts and Oasis at their peak in 1996.

It is a theme discussed in the film – these shows in August were the end of youth and innocence for many in the crowd. These shows are often looked at as the end of the Britpop movement, though some choose the next year’s release of Be Here Now as that moment. While I wasn’t at the gigs it also was the end of my youth – I turned 19 about a week after these gigs. It was a strange and interesting time where the last vestiges of childhood fell by the wayside. Music and life wouldn’t be the same after this.

The Knebworth film does a great job of showcasing how much weight Oasis and these shows held. The story is told by the fans, for the fans in celebration of that historic weekend in 1996. This film lines up very well just after the Supersonic documentary, as its endpoint was these Knebworth shows. This is likely the end of full-form documentaries about Oasis, as their high points are now covered by these two films. It is a collection of stories – about the band, the 250,000 fans who packed the house those two nights, and the millions of fans around the world.