Posts tagged with "Mar/Apr 2010"

TOL-PUDDLE MARTYRS + A Celebrated Man

TOL-PUDDLE MARTYRS A Celebrated Man myspace.com/tolpuddlemartyrs QUICK TAKE + The Tol-Puddle Martyrs once had potential to be prime Aussie imports—and this revitalized edition of the band’s psychedelic instincts remain intact. The band’s driving delivery is still pop-perfect four decades on.  Read More →

HARLEM PARLOUR MUSIC CLUB + Salt of the Earth

HARLEM PARLOUR MUSIC CLUB Salt of the Earth harlemparlourmusicclub.com QUICK TAKE + A loose co-op including Darden Smith and Mary Lee Kortes, HPMC carries a distinctive back-porch sensibility. The banjo-plucking cover of Sly Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” is an endearingly quirky touch.  Read More →

HAFDIS HULD + Synchronised Swimmers

HAFDIS HULD Synchronised Swimmers hafdishuld.com QUICK TAKE + Huld sings shimmering (if sometimes sleepy) ballads with fragility and finesse, overseen by producer Calum MacColl, son of folk forebear Ewan MacColl. A cameo by singer-songwriter Boo Hewerdine on their co-composition “Vampires” adds flavor.  Read More →

PATRICK BLOOM + Ghosts of Radio

PATRICK BLOOM Ghosts of Radio patrickbloom.com QUICK TAKE + With due respect, Iowa has never been known as a hotbed of original music—but the charming pop sounds spun by Patrick Bloom and his band the Mayflies could put his home state on the musical map.  Read More →

BIRDSONG AT MORNING + Vigil

BIRDSONG AT MORNING Vigil birdsongatmorning.com QUICK TAKE + Birdsong At Morning’s penchant for hushed and sensitive chamber folk continues on Vigil, the third installment in a trilogy of albums. All six songs here maintain an elegiac atmosphere of repose and solitude.  Read More →

THE ORANGE PEELS + 2020

THE ORANGE PEELS 2020 theorangepeels.com One would expect a band dubbed the Orange Peels to sound sweetly effervescent, and this West Coast quintet doesn’t disappoint. Led by the engaging Allen Clapp, the Peels arrive at their fourth album fully reinvigorated after a brief Clapp solo stint. They sound as giddy as ever, with “We’re Gonna Make It,” “Shining Like Stars” and “Charmed Life” exuding the irrepressible enthusiasm their song... 

GREG TROOPER + The Williamsburg Affair

GREG TROOPER The Williamsburg Affair gregtrooper.com Greg Trooper has proven on album after album that he can craft material that sounds surprisingly familiar after a single listen. That’s the case here as well, with fully half of The Williamsburg Affair immediately offering up hooks that are the stuff standards are made from. Trooper mines an Americana vein here, but like fellow practitioners Steve Earle and Robert Earl Keen he’s willing and... 

SETH GLIER + The Trouble With People

SETH GLIER The Trouble With People sethglier.com The 20-year-old Seth Glier has already earned a respectable reputation in the expansive Northeast music scene, having shared stages with the likes of John Mayer, Martin Sexton, Erin McKeown and Cheryl Wheeler. It’s small wonder, seeing as his earnest style brings to mind such warmly familiar singer-songwriters as James Taylor, Elton John and Cat Stevens—and is abetted by a voice that soars several... 

HOT DAY AT THE ZOO + Zoograss

HOT DAY AT THE ZOO Zoograss hotdayatthezoo.com Hot Day at the Zoo’s live Zoograss benefits as much from the audience’s audible enthusiasm and encouragement as it does from the group’s own prowess. This is a bluegrass band best witnessed in concert—appreciation for its rowdy, ramshackle sound is boosted considerably by a few beers and a dance floor. Even when the band dallies in heartfelt sentiment, as on “Back This Way,” there’s more... 

FYFE DANGERFIELD + Fly Yellow Moon

FYFE DANGERFIELD Fly Yellow Moon fyfedangerfield.com After a successful tenure with Britain’s eclectic Guillemots, singer Fyfe Dangerfield ventures out on his own with a consistently impressive debut that affirms his lofty ambitions. Opening track “When You Walk in the Room” initially takes a techno turn before quickly giving way to a sturdy rhythm. Likewise, the driving “Faster Than the Setting Sun” and the riveting “She Needs Me” further... 

SETH AUGUSTUS + To the Pouring Rain

SETH AUGUSTUS To the Pouring Rain sethaugustus.com A veritable one-man band, Seth Augustus first immersed himself in Boston’s experimental music scene in the ’80s before moving to San Francisco. The apprentice of bluesman Paul Pena has concocted an unusual musical mix influenced by both tradition and experimentation. It follows, then, that with this debut, Augustus sports a ragtag delivery that owes as much to Captain Beefheart and Robyn Hitchcock... 

THE JULIEN KASPER BAND + Trance Groove

THE JULIEN KASPER BAND Trance Groove julienkasper.com A graduate of the University of Miami jazz program, spawning such notable players as Pat Metheny and Bruce Hornsby, Julien Kasper is a guitar virtuoso whose instrumental excursions find equal footing in both jazz and blues without being bound to either. Kasper’s sound is a searing blend of Metheny and Steve Morse, although on tracks like “Trash Day” a hint of Jimi Hendrix enters the mix as... 

KENNY EDWARDS + Resurrection Road

KENNY EDWARDS Resurrection Road kennyedwards.com Given his rich résumé of support stints with the cream of Southern California’s singer-songwriter brigade (including Linda Ronstadt, Andrew Gold, Karla Bonoff and Wendy Waldman), it’s a little surprising that Kenny Edwards has been content to reside in the shadows until now. It took nearly 40 years for him to record his first solo album, and another seven for this wonderful follow-up. Resurrection... 

THE NADAS + Almanac

THE NADAS Almanac thenadas.com The Nadas have logged a lot of time in near-obscurity, with a résumé that spans 15 years, eight albums and even a tribute disc from fellow indie artists. Their latest effort, released on their own Authentic Records label, ostensibly includes songs written for each month of the past year. Truth be told, there’s no clear reference to the calendar in these individual entries aside from “New Year’s Eve,” which... 

CHRISTINE OHLMAN & REBEL MONTEZ + The Deep End

CHRISTINE OHLMAN & REBEL MONTEZ The Deep End christineohlman.net Long a fixture on the New York music scene—she sang in an early incarnation of Saturday Night Live’s house band—Christine Ohlman exudes blustery rock and soul authenticity from her wailing vocals to her beehive hairdo. The Deep End features guest spots from an all-star list of Ohlman friends that includes Charlie Musselwhite, Al Anderson, Ian Hunter, Dion DiMucci and Marshall... 

REAGAN BROWNE + DAYDREAMS IN STEREO

REAGAN BROWNE DAYDREAMS IN STEREO reaganbrowne.com The piercing wail and assertive riffs on the trio of opening tracks from Reagan Browne’s sophomore album make for a one-two-three punch that owes a heavy debt to the Scorpions, Whitesnake and Van Halen. Anyone inclined toward tamer fare might find the material startlingly direct, especially given the sexual innuendo of “Watch My World Explode” or the attitude of “It’s All Because of U”... 

JACK BRUCE: COMPOSING HIMSELF By Harry Shapiro

BOOK REVIEW JACK BRUCE: COMPOSING HIMSELF By Harry Shapiro [Jawbone Books] Jack Bruce was arguably the most influential bass player of his time. One could easily make the case that it was his unbridled improvisational explorations with Cream in the late 1960s (along with bandmates Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker) that led directly to the birth of fusion music in the early ’70s. Before Jaco Pastorius, before Victor Wooten, there was no one flashier... 

GRETCHEN WILSON + I Got Your Country Right Here

GRETCHEN WILSON I Got Your Country Right Here [Redneck Records] Gretchen Wilson’s 2004 debut album Here for the Party was a bawdy, ballsy blast of old-school attitude that knocked the country music establishment on its ear. But while that album succeeded by being refreshingly different from the moribund mainstream country of the moment, each successive release has been marked by an ever-constricting musical conservatism that has served only to... 

GREAT AMERICAN TAXI + Reckless Habits

GREAT AMERICAN TAXI Reckless Habits [Thirty Tigers] Great American Taxi takes a highway through the heartland that leads straight from the Mississippi Delta to the Colorado Rockies, dissecting other equally diverse realms in between. Born out of an all-star jam session featuring singer and keyboardist Chad Staehly and singer, guitarist and mandolin player Vince Herman of Leftover Salmon, Great American Taxi grew rapidly into a full-blown combo five... 

IGGY AND THE STOOGES + Raw Power (Legacy Edition)

REISSUE REVIEW IGGY AND THE STOOGES Raw Power (Legacy Edition) [Columbia/Legacy] There’s something unsettling about seeing one of the most chaotic and dangerous bands ever to destroy a stage institutionalized in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but this year indeed marks Iggy Pop and his Stooges’ induction. Likewise, it’s a little odd to be confronted with a fancy expanded reissue of something as primal and fierce as 1973’s Raw Power, an album... 

VARIOUS ARTISTS + The New Jazz Divas

VARIOUS ARTISTS The New Jazz Divas [Shout! Factory] The press material for this release—the first in NPR’s Discover Songs series—reference by first-name-only the divas who came before: Ella, Sarah, Dinah, Nina, Billie, Anita. The implication, one supposes, is that some day you will also come to know Madeleine, Esperanza, Eliane, Tierney and Melody in the same way. Whether those contemporary women (surnames: Peyroux, Spalding, Elias, Sutton and... 

THE SOJOURNERS + The Sojourners

THE SOJOURNERS The Sojourners [Black Hen Music] While each member  has been active in the music industry for decades, this trio first teamed in 2003 to record backing vocals for bluesman Jim Byrnes. The chemistry among Marcus Mosely, Will Sanders and Ron Small was immediate, and the group made its debut as the Sojourners with 2007’s Hold On. The self-titled follow-up is an irresistible set filled with robust performances, easygoing charm and a... 

MARTIN SEXTON + Sugarcoating

MARTIN SEXTON Sugarcoating [KTR] On his eighth studio album, Sugarcoating, folk singer-songwriter Martin Sexton employs his impressive baritone in such a range of vocal tricks that you’d be forgiven for forgetting about his guitar prowess. On any given tune, you might hear his voice gliding into a flawless falsetto, or aping a robust trumpet or strings. In fact, it’s sometimes impossible to discern which sounds are created by wood or brass, and... 

JOE BONAMASSA + Black Rock

JOE BONAMASSA Black Rock [J&R Adventures] On his 10th solo album, veteran guitar-slinger Joe Bonamassa reminds us right off the bat how he earned his reputation as one of the world’s top blues-rock axemen—opening with some heavy riffing and a raw-throated bellow with Bobby Parker’s “Steal Your Heart Away.” Named after the Greek studio where it was recorded, Black Rock does expand Bonamassa’s sonic palette with dashes of local sounds,... 

JIMI HENDRIX + Valleys of Neptune

JIMI HENDRIX Valleys of Neptune [Experience Hendrix/Legacy] Jimi Hendrix was active as a recording artist for only about four years before his death in 1970 at age 27. Luckily for us, he appears to have been playing and recording during practically every moment of that relatively brief period—enough to sustain posthumous archival releases for 40 years now. The latest, Valleys of Neptune, is drawn mostly from the transitional period in 1969 when... 

THE APPLES IN STEREO + Travellers in Space and Time

THE APPLES IN STEREO Travellers in Space and Time [Yep Roc/Simian] Travellers in Space and Time should put a stop to all those press clippings that associate the Apples with the early-’60s California sound. Sure, Robert Schneider still has that sunny voice that would make any Grandma want to pinch his cheeks for all eternity. But this is the Archies meets ELO meets Saturday Night Fever—in short, the most ass-shaking thing the band has ever done.... 

DR. DOG + Shame, Shame

DR. DOG Shame, Shame [Anti-] Dr. Dog, to borrow a line from Brian Wilson, just wasn’t made for these times. The Philly quintet has always been nostalgic, taking its cues from the Beach Boys, Beatles and Band—and on its sixth album, the group once again bows to its heroes. That said, Shame, Shame is no psychedelic love-in. The songs are deceptively cheery, their ’60s touchstones stoking a buzz their lyrics seek to kill. On such songs as “Stranger”... 

THE WHIGS + In the Dark

THE WHIGS In the Dark [ATO] On their second major label offering, Athens, Ga., trio the Whigs expand their ambitions to create a stylistic mesh of alt-rock, garage-rock and more. In the Dark is built on propulsive rhythms and unrelenting intensity that circle the divide midway between Kings of Leon and U2. Singer Parker Gispert veers towards the dark side, particularly when he’s raging and ranting via “Hundred/Million,” “Black Lotus” and... 

GOLDFRAPP + Head First

GOLDFRAPP Head First [Mute] Eight years into their career, the British synth-pop duo of Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory took a brief detour from the dancefloor for 2008’s acoustic-leaning Seventh Tree, followed by the score for the 2009 John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy. With Head First, they return to the buoyant beats of their highly accessible electronica. “I’m feeling alive again,” Goldfrapp sings on “Alive.” That relentless affirmation... 

JOHN HIATT + The Open Road

JOHN HIATT The Open Road [New West] From 1986’s Bring the Family forward, John Hiatt had a reputation for being rock’s poet laureate of complex contentedness, singularly gifted at chronicling the joys of family and sobriety in a way that still sounded complicated, messy, poetic and greasy. Even so, there were a few of us longtime fans who hankered for Hiatt to get back in touch with the more malcontented side he showed early in his career, and... 

TA.M.I. SHOW

DVD REVIEW TA.M.I. SHOW [Shout! Factory] Teenage Awards Music International (T.A.M.I.) was intended to be a nonprofit organization benefiting teens around the world, one that would draw attention through a series of concerts and awards shows. The organization quickly fizzled, but the 1964 kickoff show was one for the ages—the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, James Brown, Chuck Berry and eight other top-level acts of the day, all at the peak of their... 

PETER GABRIEL + Scratch My Back

PETER GABRIEL Scratch My Back [Real World] Peter Gabriel fans have learned to have the patience of Job. His last album of original songs was 2002’s so-so Up; now at last we have the follow-up, and it’s a collection of—wait for it—covers. He reunites here with producer Bob Ezrin (who also helmed Gabriel’s 1977 self-titled solo debut), and together they frame Gabriel’s voice using only piano and strings. Much of the material here is slow,... 

ALOHA + Home Acres

ALOHA Home Acres [PolyVinyl] Aloha makes much of the fact that its band members live all over the country—keyboardist T.J. Lipple in Washington, D.C., singer and guitarist Tony Cavallario in Boston, bass player Matthew Gengler in Cleveland and drummer Cale Parks in Brooklyn—and periodically get together to make music. It’s fitting, then, that their sound is a little like an airplane in flight: It floats gracefully through the heavens by means... 

JOANNA NEWSOM + Have One on Me

JOANNA NEWSOM Have One on Me [Drag City] Harpist, pianist and singer Joanna Newsom doesn’t seem to have been in any hurry to deliver her highly anticipated third album, her first in four years. Likewise, the tunes on the three-disc Have One on Me refuse to be rushed—melodies meander, introductions stretch languidly and defiantly, and more tracks than not extend past the six-minute mark. The expansiveness often suits Newsom’s unique sound, particularly... 

BARENAKED LADIES + All in Good Time

BARENAKED LADIES All in Good Time [Raisin’ Records] Nearly two decades have passed since Barenaked Ladies burst on the scene with such crowd-pleasers as “If I Had $1000000.” Tagged early on as a novelty act, the Canadian group has since evolved into a sophisticated pop band, albeit one that continues to serve up its songs with a wink and a nod. For the most part, All in Good Time marks another solid step in that evolution. Rife with shimmery... 

BLACK FRANCIS + NonStopErotik

BLACK FRANCIS NonStopErotik [Cooking Vinyl] Occasional Pixies leader Black Francis has tended to alternate between albums full of honeyed crooning (Honeycomb, aptly enough) and noisy collections of unhinged sonic mayhem (Bluefinger). He marries the two on his latest, making for an intriguing union that turns unsettling with creepy vocals on the minor-key ballad “Rabbits” and the seemingly unconnected rhythm track that chugs along under “My... 

NATALIE MERCHANT + Leave Your Sleep

NATALIE MERCHANT Leave Your Sleep [Nonesuch] It’s been seven years since the last Natalie Merchant album, and the wait for completely original material continues with no end in sight. Though she’s back penning tunes, the words on this new set are the work of classic English and American poets. In its reverence for e.e. cummings and Robert Louis Stevenson, this feels less like an album and more like a university recital one might attend for extra... 

SERJ TANKIAN + Elect the Dead Symphony

SERJ TANKIAN Elect the Dead Symphony [Reprise] Armed with guitars, keyboards and drums, his usual weapons of choice, Serj Tankian approaches songwriting like guerrilla warfare. As a solo artist and leader of System of a Down, the Armenian-American singer and multi-instrumentalist makes music that hits, recoils, changes shape, then hits again. His best songs marry nü-metal aggression and Old World mystery. This live album, recorded in March 2009,... 

JEFF BECK + Emotion & Commotion

JEFF BECK Emotion & Commotion [Rhino] Jeff Beck speaks through his guitar, and he only does so when he has something to say—the seven-year break between Emotion & Commotion and its predecessor, the electronica-minded Jeff, was one of several such extended breaks in a career that now stretches for more than four decades. What he has to say in 2010 may at first seem puzzling, but by album’s end reveals itself as characteristically sharp,... 
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