Listening - Listening (1968/2000 Remastered Edition)
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Album: Listening - Listening (Remastered Edition)
Released: 1968 (2000)
Genre: Heavy Psych-, Jazz-Rock
Gnosis Rating: 10.95
Akarma - AK 050
The group started playing in mid sixties in Boston, and they were headed by the guitar player Peter Malick, then sixteen years old. The music is a very good example of psychedelic rock played with great mastery, the band really show a variety of musical styles. It's difficult to believe that a band like this, did not became famous, but thanks to Akarma we can now appreciate the amazing sound of a really great underrated band. - ProgNews
Recorded in 1968 by this band from Boston, originals on Vanguard now change hands $$$. Tipped by Jefferson Airplane's guitarist as a his fave band Listening's only album, contains some superb, eclectic psychedelic rock including the druggy "Stoned Is" as well as some other gems loaded with freaky guitar, keyboards etc. Good album. Features Walter Powers, also of the later Reed-less Velvets lineup. - Freak Emporium
Listening have to be the most underappreciated group in the whole scene. Instrumentally and vocally they were tops. Michael Tschudin who seemed to be the leading force was an accomplished piano player and an inventive organist utilizing his Hammond B-2 with adroitness. Bassist Walter Powers started with The Lost and ended up in many Boston groups up to the punk era. We used to wonder at guitarist Peter Malick. "He's how old?', we would ask in jealousy. He was much too good to be in his teens. The album shows him in a good light. You can hear those blues riffs he would build on in his career playing with some blues legands (Otis Span, John Lee Hooker) and eventually 'discovering' Nora Jones! This is a supprise offshoot to this whole story. You can read about that at Peter Malick's own website. Peter Malicks Website.
Song structures in their 1968 LP are complicated. No three chord songs for these guys. They sound like they could be Berkeley grads. Lots of blues and jazz influenced riffing. They also had a latin rhythm thing going at times and actually get into Santana style grooves once or twice. They also get into some spacy grooves. Always tasty and controlled even in their 'stoned' jams. There is 'phasing' on some cuts. I love the songs but I have to admit I have listened to this LP so many times that I have lost all critical impartiality . Now there's something you don't hear people admitting. Coming at this new you might have to listen to it a few times before it sinks in.
The album cover is another reminder of the Bosstown Sound days. It is a picture of them playing at the Esplanade's Hatch Shell in Boston during a Bosstown Sound rock concert. I never hear people talk about this but this was a big deal, at least it seems to me. I can't remember the Hatch Shell having a rock event ever before this. The Shell is where the Boston Pops would play. The Pops would do the Fourth of July concert there. It was all about the fuddy duddys. All of sudden we had about 10 rock groups playing. The place looked packed to me as I walked around and wondered where all these people came from. I think there was about 14,000 people. I seem to remember reading that in the paper the next day. In any case, they had trouble, of course, and vowed to never have rock there again. This has happened now and again up to the current day. The last time was a Green Day concert that got out of hand. Long live rock n' roll.
Just recently (4/2007) I see the album has been rereleased on Akarma Records. - The Bosstown Sound
Michael Tschudin led the Boston-based band Listening, but it is the contributions by former Velvet Underground bassist Walter Powers and guitarist Peter Malick which make this album historic. Powers performed over the years with keyboardist Willie Alexander as members of Capitol Recording Artist the Lost, the aforementioned Velvets, and on Autre Chose, a live album from Alexander released on New Rose in Paris. Peter Malick is best known for being Otis Spann's guitarist and a member of the James Montgomery Band on Capricorn. Their legendary status in Boston rock & roll history brings positive notoriety to the fine music on this Vanguard release. "So Happy" is the poppiest tune, a cross between the Monkees and the Mojo Men, which is quite misleading. The album runs the gamut from pop to blues to jazz. "Baby Where Are You" is some strange fusion of Motown and the Spencer Davis Group which then veers off in a frenzy of effects and musical jam. Eight of the 11 tracks are written by keyboard/vocalist Michael Tschudin, with three titles attributed to the group. "See You Again," one of the group efforts, is another jam with riffs the Who would greatly appreciate. Phish's success validates how ahead of its time Listening truly was. There is certainly an identity here as Tschudin takes the boys through all sorts of styles inside the tune "Laugh at the Stars." Elements of Jimi Hendrix, the Band, and the Vanilla Fudge swirl around in the pretty decent production by Michael Chechik. Where peer group the Peanut Butter Conspiracy sound forced, Listening is right on target. There's just no hit single here that could launch these gentlemen from the trap known as "The Bosstown Sound." "9/8 Song" is definite jazz, kind of like latter-day Rascals, and we know how good that was, and how far it didn't go. "Stoned Is" sounds like the Velvet Underground performing "Chest Fever" by way of Lou Reed's "New York Stars" from Sally Can't Dance. It would fit perfectly on the '60s film soundtrack Psych-Out. Listening has punch and creativity which deserved a better fate. - Joe Viglione, All Music Guide
1 You're Not There (04:08)
2 Laugh at the Stars (04:14)
3 9/8 Song (04:29)
4 Stoned Is (04:40)
5 "Forget It, Man!" (03:25)
6 I Can Teach You (02:23)
7 So Happy (02:33)
8 Cuando (02:51)
9 "Baby: Where Are You?" (06:22)
10 Fantasy (01:03)
11 See You Again (03:45)
Michael Tschudin vocals, vibes, keyboards. conga drum
Walter Powers bass and feelthey literature (sic).
Peter Malick guitars
Ernie Kamanis vocals, drums, guirro
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