Tag: Tonio K

Arc Angels – Arc Angels …album review

I started to listen to this album on a recommendation, and I was totally impressed. I started off with one song, but the hell with that, I went on to the complete album. Great rock and roll band with killer riffs and tones. Also, being produced by an E Street Band member doesn’t hurt either! Steven Van Zandt produced this album, and that right there is huge. Also, on keyboards, you have the Small Faces and Faces keyboard player, Ian McLagan. McLagan helped out on this recording, and he sounds great. They walk the line between rock, hard rock, blues, and even throw some funk in there in places. Great musicians on this album, and there is a reason for that.

The band formed right after the death of Stevie Ray Vaughan. Drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon, the backbone of Double Trouble (SRV’s backing band), found themselves without a frontman after Stevie’s passing in 1990. Instead of leaving the stage, they teamed up with two Austin guitarist-vocalists: Doyle Bramhall II and Charlie Sexton. Both were young, rising Texas guitar players with deep musical pedigrees. The name “Arc Angels” referenced the Austin Rehearsal Complex. Although the album was born out of Stevie Ray’s backing band, it sounded different and moved ahead. 

The album was recorded in Austin and at Ardent Studios in Memphis (Big Star, The Replacements), and it blended blues, alt-rock edges, and soulful songwriting. Throughout the record, Layton and Shannon play like a unit that has lived many lifetimes together, heavy but never heavy-handed. They aren’t just holding down rhythm, they’re pushing the music forward. Doyle Bramhall II, Charlie Sexton, Chris Layton, and Shannon did most of the writing, along with help from Tonio K. 

The opening song is Living In A Dream, and it’s bold and in your face, as the rest of the album is. The second song is Paradise Cafe, which is probably my favorite off the album. That guitar is raunchy as hell, and I love it. They did include a song they wrote in memory of their friend Vaughan called See What Tomorrow Brings. The track Good Times has some cool funk and blues to it. If you have some time, check this album ou.t. I think you will like it. The critical reaction was good for this album, but it got lost in the grunge shuffle that was going on at the time, unfortunately. 

 For anyone who loves Texas blues with bite, this is a great place to start. 

Living In A Dream

If you were mineI’d give you all the worldIf you were mineI’d take you higher girlBut you got me waitingOoh, you’re so coldIt kills me timeOoh and time is all we needBut god knows I’ve tried, I’ve triedTo get you close to me

But tonight when my eyes are closingYou’ll be with me

Just let me beAnd let me believe, you’re mineCause there’s nothin’ wrong hereI’m just livin’Livin’ in a dream

Without a signYou brought me to my kneesWithout a sign,I crossed the lineI beg for sleep

But tonight when my eyes are closin’You will be with me

Just let me beAnd let me believe, you’re mineJust let me beAnd let me believe, you’re mineCause there’s nothin’ wrong hereI’m just livin’Livin’ in a dream

…

Tonio K – Life In The Foodchain

Watching the shadows for anything moving
And hoping they don’t come around

My friend CB (Cincinnati BabyHead) introduced me to Tonio K a few weeks ago and I’ve been listening to him heavily. I liked him right away because he mixes it up in his songs. His songs all have a great groove to them…  and will roll you like wholesale carpet. What intrigued me the most though were the witty lyrics he throws out plus some out of the box arrangements…that work.

The album I listened to is called Life In The Foodchain released in 1978. Click on that link and it should take you to the complete album. There are a lot of good songs on this album. The title track alone should have made the charts.

Who is Tonio K? He was born Steve Krikorian on July 4, 1950, in California. He is a singer/songwriter, whose songs have been recorded by Charlie Sexton, Bette Midler, Peter Case, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Vanessa Williams, Bonnie Raitt, Brian McKnight, and others. His most successful song is “Love Is”… a #1 hit for Vanessa Willams with Brian McNight.

Krikorian and Alan Shapazian (rhythm guitar) formed a band called The Raik’s Progress which recorded one single for Liberty Records, released in 1967. In 1973, he appeared as a member of the former Buddy Holly backing band the Crickets on their album “Remnants”.

By 1978, Krikorian went solo, adopting the name of Tonio K, possibly a reference to the Thomas Mann novel Tonio Kröger, with Life In The Foodchain.

In 2004, he reunited with the Crickets for a track on their album, The Crickets and Their Buddies, singing lead on the Holly song, “Not Fade Away.”

The record was produced by Rob Fraboni ( who produced The Band, Bob Dylan, Joe Cocker) and featured a cast that included Earl Slick, Garth Hudson, Dick Dale, and Albert Lee. What a cast that is!  It was also the first Pop/Rock record to feature the percussive sounds of an AK-47 firing live ammunition. The album garnered much critical acclaim.

The track list is

Life In The Foodchain
The Funky Western Civilization
Willie And The Pigman
Ballad Of The Night The Clocks All Quit (And The Government Failed)
American Love Affair
How Come I Can’t See You In My Mirror
Better Late Than Never
A Lover’s Plea
H-A-T-R-E-D

I picked just 3 songs below…click the link in the article to check the album out.

Tonio K: I lived at Shangri-La for much of 1978, and we recorded Life In The Food Chain there. Shangri-La is The Band’s studio out there, the studio that’s in The Last Waltz. The place, I think it was built by Kaiser Aluminum in the ’40s. Real cool California ranch style house. I think Kaiser used it to entertain corporate guests, which is to say they used it basically as a brothel. They would send guys out there and send women out there with them, way north of Malibu, at Zuma Beach.

But, anyway, Garth was my neighbor there. He and Molly, his wife, would spend a lot of nights there. They had a farm somewhere further up in Decker Canyon or somewhere. But I got to know him and he played on my first two records, Garth did. And he’s pretty trippy.

Life In The Foodchain

Well your mother was there to protect you
Your papa was there to provide
So how in the world did the excellent baby
Wind up in this hotel so broken inside
You lie on your bed in the midnight darkly
Listening to every sound
Watching the shadows for anything moving
And hoping they don’t come around

‘Cause it’s dog eat dog
And it’s cat and mouse
It’s watch your step and cross yourself
And get back in the house
And it’s do or die
It’s push and shove
Because everybody’s hungry
And there isn’t quite enough

That’s right, we’re talkin’ about the good life
In the foodchain
Love among the ruins
I guess that you’ve finally got to accept
That there’s nothing you can do about it
It’s kind of like carving the turkey
It’s kind of like mowing the lawn
Everything gets to this certain dimension
Winds up on a customer’s plate and then gone

‘Cause it’s dog eat dog
And it’s the cat and mouse
You know it’s cut the cake and grab a plate
And hope it goes around
I said it’s a do or die
It’s push and shove
It’s because everybody’s hungry
And there just isn’t quite enough

Well it’s dog eat dog
And it’s the cat and mouse
You know it’s cut the cake and grab a plate
And hope it goes around
And it’s do or die
It’s push and shove
That’s because everybody’s hungry
And there just isn’t quite enough