Y Kant Tori Read

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Y KANT TORI READ

Y Kant Tori Read was a 1980s synthpop band, fronted by singer-songwriter Tori Amos. The band released one album, also called Y Kant Tori Read, which was largely unsuccessful; Atlantic Records abandoned promoting the record completely after only two months of release. The band originally consisted of Amos, Steve Caton, Matt Sorum (later of Guns N' Roses), and bassist Brad Cobb. They worked with record producer Joe Chiccarelli, and Kim Bullard, later of Kajagoogoo. The name comes from an incident in Amos's childhood where she was asked to leave the Peabody Conservatory because she refused to read sheet music. (More from Wikipedia)

Her first foray into music was to front a rock band called Y Kant Tori Read; their sole album release was also called Y Kant Tori Read (1987) and sold very few copies. (Remarkably, Tori Amos still didn't lose her recording contract with Atlantic Records). Many years later, I saw an original copy of the album at a record collectors show in San Francisco; it was priced at $115. After holding it awhile, I remembered coming across a copy at a used record store (also in San Francisco I think but before I moved there). It was priced rather high ($8 or $10), and I wondered why I had never heard of it. I passed on the purchase and thought of it (and others that got away) often over the years, but I don't dwell on it anymore: Y Kant Tori Read would have gone through Hurricane Katrina like all the rest.

(February 2014)

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Robert Tepper, Modern Madness – I have seen this record show up on the Internet in a few slots, since it features Tori Amos among the background singers. Her under-rated debut effort Y Kant Tori Read – technically an album by the rock band Y Kant Tori Read rather than an album by Tori Amos individually like all of her later records – came out in the same year.

(December 2015)

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Since I am down to a quarterly schedule rather than a monthly schedule, my annual list is a lot shorter, so I will try listing all of the people that I have discussed in some depth rather than just the Under Appreciated Rock Band and the Story of the Month.  They are all punk rock bands of one kind or another this year (2015-2016), and the most recent post includes my overview of the early rap/hip hop scene that an old friend, George Konstantinow challenged me to write – probably so long ago that he might have forgotten.  

December 2015 – 1990’s pop/punk band AMANDA JONES; Story of the Month on the early American singles by the Beatles; also, Rochelle Harper, Lisa Loeb, 3 Doors Down, Level with the Ground, Chris Stamey with Yo La Tengo, Meri Wilson, Bobby Brown, the Cruzados / the Plugz, Terence Trent d’Arby, An Emotional Fish, Bruce Hornsby and the Range, Hunters & Collectors, Looters, Shakespear’s Sister, Robert Tepper, Y Kant Tori Read / Tori Amos, Ugly Kid Joe, Paul Young, the Rolling Stones, Mandy Brix, the Joneses.  

(Year 7 Review)