
UNDER-APPRECIATED ROCK BAND OF THE MONTH FOR SEPTEMBER 2010: THE STILLROVEN
(September 2010)
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Flashback: The Under-Appreciated Rock Band of the Month for September 2010 – THE STILLROVEN
The Stillroven were an unknown
garage rock band from Minneapolis, even to most record collectors, when
Sundazed Records put together a compilation CD in
1996 called
Cast Thy Burden upon the Stillroven. I missed the fact that
Sundazed had put out a second
Stillroven CD in
2003,
Too Many Spaces, though
Allmusic disputes that it is actually an unreleased album. For better or worse, I have gotten better (or a lot more wordy at least) in developing the theme for my monthly posts than I was for this
UARB.
There is a lot more info about the band on the web now than there was in
2010; they even have a
Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Stillroven/92138252655 .
Sundazed is definitely amped about this band: In the liner notes for
Cast Thy Burden upon the Stillroven, they rave that
the Stillroven’s version of “
(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone”
buries the
Monkees’ hit recording of “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone”. Now, on their website,
Sundazed insists that “their pedal-to-the-metal, frenetic version of ‘
Hey Joe’ [is] still THE definitive version as far as we’re concerned”. That’s a pretty strong statement considering that
“Hey Joe” was one of the most recorded songs of the
1960’s. Better-known covers include those by
the Jimi Hendrix Experience,
Deep Purple (on their debut album,
Shades of Deep Purple, they even claimed to be the songwriter!),
Johnny Rivers,
the Byrds, the Music Machine, and
the Leaves.
So, if you want to test that claim, here is
the Stillroven on
YouTube (audio only) performing “
Hey Joe”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-0zMnkCYOE . Their take on
“(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” can be found at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP4m3wti890 . They also do fine original songs; check out what is basically the title song from the CD shown above, “
Cast Thy Burden upon the Stone” at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d-TOtwTcYg . It is audio only like the rest, but there are some nice visuals (including a shot of the cartoon character on
I Dream of Jeannie that you might remember from the opening credits).
(September 2012)
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Picture Gallery: The Under-Appreciated Rock Band of the Month for September 2010 – THE STILLROVEN
Here is the original 45 for their cover of the 1960’s classic “Hey Joe”:
This is another single that the Stillroven released of a song that the band covered:
Here is a shot of the band in concert at a venue called the Cave:
This is a color photograph of the Stillroven:
(September 2013)
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It was about a year ago that I started my series on
Under-Appreciated Rock Bands of the Month (including one
Under-Appreciated Rock Artist of the Month), to celebrate the more obscure albums and bands in my record collection that had not yet been profiled in
Wikipedia. The list shows a wide-ranging list of types of music I think:
December 2009 – BEAST, 1960’s hippie-flavored rock band (2 albums)
January 2010 – WENDY WALDMAN, 1970’s singer-songwriter (6 albums)
February 2010 – CYRUS ERIE, 1960’s garage rock band (single)
March 2010 – BANG, 1970’s hard rock band (4 albums)
April 2010 – THE BREAKAWAYS, 1970’s power pop rock band (several singles; retrospective album)
May 2010 – THE NOT QUITE, 1980’s psychedelic revival rock band (3 albums)
June 2010 – WATERLILLIES, 1990’s electronica rock band (2 albums)
July 2010 – THE EYES, 1970’s punk rock band (several singles)
September 2010 – THE STILLROVEN, 1960’s garage rock band (several singles; retrospective album)
October 2010 – THE PILTDOWN MEN, 1960’s instrumental rock band (several singles; retrospective album)
November 2010 – SLOVENLY, 1980’s indie rock band (5 albums)
(Year 1 Review)