Posts tagged with "March/April 2012"

APP HAPPY

APP HAPPY What can the right music-making mobile applications do for you? Just five years ago, cellphones were just that: phones. Enter the brave new world of smartphones, where the mobile gadgets have evolved into an entirely new category of creative tool—one that can help you create music. With the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad tablet in 2010, music software developers have been quick to harness the power of these powerful... 

NORAH JONES

NORAH JONES How she made the most unexpected music of her career with some help from Danger Mouse.  In June 2009, Norah Jones was somewhere not many people would expect her to be: in a small Los Angeles studio, cooking up new music with producer Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton. Ten years ago, Jones’ diamond-selling debut, Come Away With Me, established her as a pop icon with a soft, jazzy touch. Each of her follow-up solo albums—all of which... 

CALLAGHAN

CALLAGHAN HOMETOWN: Boston, Lincolnshire, England INFLUENCES: Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly, James Taylor ALBUM: Life in Full Colour, due out May 1 WEBSITE: callaghansongs.com Georgina Callaghan was playing flute by age 6, learned piano shortly afterward, began writing songs at 14 and by 18 made the long trek from her small hometown to London to pursue a life in music. She slept under the kitchen table in her sister’s tiny apartment while gradually... 

SPREE WILSON

SPREE WILSON HOMETOWN: Nashville INFLUENCES: Fleetwood Mac, Outkast, Snoop Dogg ALBUM: The Spark, out soon WEBSITE: spreewilson.com Rapper, singer and guitarist Spree Wilson grew up in the capital of country music, Nashville—but while he enjoyed learning from the city’s rich musical tapestry, he knew his own destiny lay elsewhere. After high school he headed to Clark Atlanta University, where producer Dallas Austin became an invaluable mentor.... 

CRAIG CAMPBELL

CRAIG CAMPBELL HOMETOWN: Lyons, Ga. INFLUENCES: Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Travis Tritt ALBUM: Craig Campbell, out now WEBSITE: craigcampbell.tv Craig Campbell first fell in love with music while performing at church, where he played piano for his local Baptist congregation throughout his teens. Winning a regional singing competition at age 15 set his career path in stone. “I wanted to be onstage for sure,” he says. “The crowd response is... 

FOLK FORWARD – ESSENTIAL FOLK

FOLK FORWARD – ESSENTIAL FOLK DUST BOWL BALLADS (1940)  WOODY GUTHRIE  In a whirl of autobiography and activism, Guthrie reinvents American song. The Oklahoma native recorded this 1940 gem in two days, laying the groundwork for thousands of guitar-strumming followers. These are dusty, hard-bitten ballads that somehow gleam and soar more than 70 years after their creation. THE FREEWHEELIN’ BOB DYLAN (1963)  BOB DYLAN The folk bard’s... 

FOLK FORWARD

  FOLK FORWARD How a sound born of tradition is thriving in the modern day   By Peter Cooper It’s the other “F” word. And like its more obscene counterpart, it means different things to different people in different contexts. In the 1950s, it was sweater-vested political subversives. Later, it was shape-shifting musical revolutionaries and introspective singer-songwriters. It has been used to describe troubadours who specialize in journalistic... 

MEAT LOAF

MEAT LOAF  Telling big stories, going for broke and having a hell of a time “I think dramatically,” declares Meat Loaf. “My albums are big, complicated stories.” Indeed, nearly every project Meat Loaf undertakes is bigger than life, starting with 1977’s smash rock opera Bat Out of Hell. Produced by Todd Rundgren and composed by classically trained songwriter Jim Steinman, the album has sold more than 14 million copies in the U.S. alone. Meat... 

KAISER CHIEFS

KAISER CHIEFS One new album in a seemingly infinite number of variations     For its fourth album, the English group Kaiser Chiefs posted 22 new songs on its website and let fans assemble and purchase their own 10-track “bespoke” versions. The band, best known for the songs “I Predict a Riot” and “Ruby,” assembled its own iteration last year for release overseas under the title The Future Is Medieval. Yet another version is out now... 

REBELUTION

REBELUTION The sky’s the limit for this sunny California quartet’s brand of uplifting reggae rock  It’s no wonder that Santa Barbara, Calif., is often referred to as the American Riviera. The sun seems to shine incessantly and the beach always beckons. No wonder, then, that reggae-rock band Rebelution found its sound in the small seaside town of Isla Vista, one of Santa Barbara’s more carefree enclaves, making music teeming with spectacularly... 

WILSON PHILLIPS

WILSON PHILLIPS   Three members of classic pop royalty dedicate an album to the ones they love    The members of Wilson Phillips first drew worldwide attention for their quintuple-platinum 1990 self-titled debut—and for their status as rock royalty. Sisters Wendy and Carnie Wilson were the daughters of Beach Boy Brian Wilson, while Chynna Phillips’ parents were John and Michelle Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas. The group has always... 

SPIRITUALIZED

SPIRITUALIZED  Crossing continents in a quest to find the heart and see the light   Jason “J. Spaceman” Pierce, frontman and guiding light of English rock band Spiritualized, adamantly disagrees with those who think music must follow rules. After all, he’s been swirling rock, R&B, pop and more into richly textured sonic landscapes throughout his career. But there’s one rule in which he believes fiercely: There’s a delicate but real... 

JESSIE BAYLIN

JESSIE BAYLIN Putting a new spark into her career with unexpected help from her grandmother    “Three days before I was to start recording this album, the label cut my budget in half,” says Jessie Baylin. “Then the next day, they cut it another quarter.” The Nashville-based singer-songwriter took the hint. “They listened to the demos and didn’t think I had the songs,” she recalls with a sigh. “They wanted to put me with hit writers,... 

M. WARD

M. Ward The “Him” of She & Him takes a confident step back to center stage   After releasing 2009’s Hold Time, Portland-based singer and songwriter M. Ward largely put his solo career on hold. He toured and made albums with Monsters of Folk—an indie-rock supergroup also featuring My Morning Jacket’s Jim James and Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis—and She & Him, the duo Ward founded with actress and singer Zooey Deschanel.... 

COWBOY JUNKIES

COWBOY JUNKIES  Bringing a nomadic journey to a close, while looking ahead to the next  After more than 25 years together, the members of Cowboy Junkies have but one goal: “Survival,” says guitarist and primary songwriter Michael Timmins with a laugh. Yet their recent activities suggest broader ambition than that. Over the last 18 months the Canadian band has released a quartet of separate but linked albums dubbed The Nomad Series. “We had... 

JOAN OSBORNE

JOAN OSBORNE  Bringing it on home to the blues and soul of her early days  From the moment she lit into Sonny Boy Williamson II’s “Help Me” on her triple-platinum 1995 debut, Relish, it was clear that Kentucky-born Joan Osborne had a natural feel for gutbucket blues. She’s explored those roots regularly ever since, but never so directly as on her new album, the all-covers affair Bring It On Home. With the help from her co-producer and... 

JASON MRAZ

JASON MRAZ A talk about the meaning of music, finding the right sound and his favorite four-letter word. Jason Mraz is in a noisy Los Angeles rehearsal hall, taking a break from doing something that doesn’t come easily to him: telling other people what to do. Mraz first emerged from the Southern California coffeehouse scene just over a decade ago armed only with a guitar, a sweetly melodious tenor voice and a rapidly growing stack of original... 

COUNTING CROWS

COUNTING CROWS Adam Duritz and company make an eclectic set of covers their own  Nearly two decades have passed since Counting Crows exploded onto the scene with their multiplatinum debut August and Everything After and its smash single, “Mr. Jones.” Even as the band has built on that foundation with one critically acclaimed album of originals after another, it has carved out a reputation for interpreting others’ material—from filling in... 

LYLE LOVETT

LYLE LOVETT  One of America’s great singer-songwriters marks the end of an era Twenty-six years into his recording career, Lyle Lovett is still amused by the attempts to categorize his music. “Even now, people who don’t really listen to country music still think of me as country, and people who listen to country don’t,” he says. “It’s an odd place to be.” Odd perhaps, but Lovett can thank his idiosyncratic nature for providing... 

DAYNA KURTZ

DAYNA KURTZ American Standard daynakurtz.com American music comes from the church, so it’s fitting that American Standard—a sampling of homegrown sounds spanning hollerin’ blues to the Replacements’ “Here Comes a Regular”—opens with a prayer. “I’ll be a great sage or a fabulous liar,” Dayna Kurtz sings on “Invocation,” pleading with “mama”—maybe her mother, maybe the Virgin Mary—to “let me come home.” Kurtz will... 

UNICYCLE LOVES YOU

UNICYCLE LOVES YOU Failure unicyclelovesyou.com Perhaps intended as film criticism, “Wow Wave Cinema,” the second track on the third album from this Chicago slacker-punk trio, also applies to rock ’n’ roll. “It’s nothing new,” frontman Jim Carroll sings. “It’s just called by a different name.” Twenty years ago, the band’s loveably skuzzy tunes would have been tagged “alt-rock.” Today, they’re “neo-” something-or-other,... 

BAHAMAS

BAHAMAS Barchords bahamasmusic.net If not for its twin indie-rock guitars—one glistening, the other grinding—the Bahamas standout “Never Again” might pass for a Lenny Kravitz ballad. And that would be just fine—having spent years playing with fellow Canadian singer Feist, Afie Jurvanen is no stranger to mainstream acclaim. But on his second disc under this tropical moniker, he paddles farther out from the pop mainland. Give him an acoustic... 

YVA LAS VEGASS

YVA LAS VEGASS I Was Born in a Place of Sunshine and the Smell of Ripe Mangoes myspace.com/lasvegass To say Yva Las Vegass has a unique point of view is putting it mildly, and there’s no room for mildness where she’s concerned. The native Venezuelan moved to Seattle as a teen and roughed it as a street musician, battling homelessness and addiction. After performing at a birthday party for Krist Novoselic, she played with the Nirvana bassist in... 

MOONLIGHT BRIDE

MOONLIGHT BRIDE Twin Lakes moonlightbridemusic.com On “Lemonade,” the big gulp of bittersweet, noisy pop that is this EP’s finest track, singer Justin Giles is simultaneously psyched up and disoriented—just like the music that envelops him. “Where did you take me?” he asks. “These kids are drunk and they don’t like guitars.” If he’s at a party where the kids don’t dig six-strings, he’s definitely in the wrong place. On their... 

SISTER SPARROW & THE DIRTY BIRDS

SISTER SPARROW & THE DIRTY BIRDS Pound of Dirt sistersparrow.com Like a snazzy dance band that refuses to wear shoes, this nine-piece soul-rock crew does red-hot and brassy ’60s soul with a scraggly blues edge. The scruffiness is down to the sibling duo of Arleigh and Jackson Kincheloe—Catskills natives who use voice and harmonica, respectively, to dredge up all the sorrow, joy and sexiness of the vintage music they love. Arleigh aspires... 

RICKOLUS

RICKOLUS Coyote and Mule iamrickolus.tumblr.com “Where is everyone?” Richard Colado sings on “Candy Blood,” just before answering his own question: “I am everyone.” Sure enough, the 31-year-old Floridian is the sole force behind Rickolus; he recorded this album on a four-track recorder, working partially in the shed behind his parents’ house. There’s a handcrafted feel to these songs, and while the crud-pop nugget “Something in... 

SICK FRIEND

SICK FRIEND The Draft Dodger sickfriend.bandcamp.com Since the emergence of the White Stripes and the Black Keys, the indie world has been deluged with guitar-and-drum duos. Sick Friend would seem to offer more of the same, but on their debut these thoughtful Canadians drop bittersweet synth lines and straitlaced rhythms. Singer and guitarist Michael O’Brien has a soul-baring falsetto informed by the Dears and Of Montreal, but on the excellent... 

NED EVETT

NED EVETT Treehouse nedevett.com The story goes that Ned Evett smashed his Fender Stratocaster one New Year’s Eve and fashioned a fretless guitar from the pieces. His ingenuity and virtuosity are well documented, but there’s more to his story. For his sixth album, the journeyman picker moved to Nashville and recorded with King Crimson’s Adrian Belew. The goal: to write great songs about his recent financial and romantic hardships. By any measure,... 

COLIN SCHILLER & THE REACTIONS

COLIN SCHILLER & THE REACTIONS Endless Holiday colinschillerandthereactions.com  When groups do cheeseball ’80s revivalism they tend to focus on stiff, robotic New Wave or butt-wiggling hair metal. Credit Colin Schiller for trying something different. Following in the hallowed footsteps of Loverboy, the Romantics, “Glory Days”-era Springsteen and Huey Lewis and the News, Schiller and his Brooklyn crew make music for Friday at 5 p.m., when... 

THE CHROME CRANKS

THE CHROME CRANKS Ain’t No Lies in Blood myspace.com/chromecranks The Chrome Cranks spent three days recording this, their first new album in 15 years. That probably includes the time it took to load in, load out and sweep up whatever detritus—beer bottles, cigarette butts, voodoo remnants—they left behind in the studio. As per their reputation, the Cranks play bluesy punk with murderous glee, conjuring up the Dead Boys on “Living/Dead”... 

CAPSULA

CAPSULA In the Land of Silver Souls capsula.us Forged under an Argentinean dictatorship and now based in Spain, this magnificently noisy trio traverses time and space, folding the finest rebel guitar sounds—rockabilly, garage, glam and art-school droning—into one shiny package. Imagine the Stooges on Mars with Spanish accents.  Read More →

I SEE HAWKS IN L.A.

I SEE HAWKS IN L.A. New Kind of Lonely iseehawks.com On their first acoustic album, these L.A. country-rockers muse on the Grateful Dead and mourn the literal dead. They also celebrate life—a parade of humor and sadness that, with its immigrant strivers, hopeless drug takers and doomed lovers, is especially colorful in their hometown.  Read More →

TONIGHT ALIVE

TONIGHT ALIVE What Are You So Scared of? tonightaliveofficial.com Bearing the unmistakable stamp of Mark Trombino—the producer whose high-gloss, hyper-precise pop-punk sound has become an industry standard—the debut from this Aussie quintet bristles with adolescent emotion. When singer Jenna McDougall’s feelings get messy, the music stays tidy and on target.  Read More →

MARSHALL CATCH

MARSHALL CATCH Make Noise marshallcatch.com It’s hip to reference Pavement and Teenage Fanclub, but back in the ’90s the rock bands people actually listened to sounded more like Marshall Catch. These big-hearted Montana boys do Hootie hooks with Collective Soul punch. You forgot how much you missed this stuff.  Read More →

JACK WHITE

JACK WHITE Blunderbuss [Third Man/XL/Columbia] You knew someone as restlessly prolific as Jack White would get around to it eventually. After six albums with the White Stripes, two each with the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather, collaborations with everyone from Loretta Lynn to Conan O’Brien and innumerable moves as producer and record-label entrepreneur, the pride of Detroit (and more recently of Nashville) has finally released a solo album. White... 

SPECTRUM ROAD

SPECTRUM ROAD Spectrum Road [Palmetto] “Supergroup” is a term that was long ago diluted, but every once in a while the stars align and the word regains its meaning. Spectrum Road is incontestably a supergroup: Cream bassist Jack Bruce; Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid; keyboardist John Medeski of Medeski Martin & Wood; and drummer Cindy Blackman, who has backed husband Carlos Santana, Lenny Kravitz and others. Spectrum Road—and the quartet’s... 

THE TING TINGS

THE TING TINGS Sounds from Nowheresville [Columbia] In the first 10 seconds of “Hang It Up,” the leadoff single from their sophomore album, the Ting Tings swipe the opening chord from Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and an almost equally recognizable beat from Jay-Z. This British electro-pop duo may have 99 problems, but absorbing and expressing their influences ain’t one. Opener “Silence” is a gift to New Wave geeks—a three-minute... 

DELTA SPIRIT

DELTA SPIRIT Delta Spirit [Rounder] It’s fitting that Delta Spirit’s third full-length album is self-titled. The band reinvents itself here, channeling the raucous energy and sound of its live performances. Lineup changes—guitarist Sean Walker has been replaced by Will McLaren—and a cross-country relocation from Long Beach, Calif., to Brooklyn has erased the rootsy folk leanings of previous releases, leaving tightly crafted rock in their... 

DR. JOHN

DR. JOHN Locked Down [Nonesuch Records] Few could blame Dr. John (aka Mac Rebennack) if he opted to coast on his towering reputation in New Orleans music. But this new album proves he has no such intentions. Spearheaded by the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach—who produced and co-wrote the material—Locked Down sounds like a 21st century version of the R&B gumbo Dr. John served up at the turn of the ’70s. The opening title track sets the tone.... 

THE SHINS

THE SHINS Port of Morrow [Aural Apothecary] Following the Shins’ 2007 album Wincing the Night Away, leader James Mercer stretched in new directions—collaborating with Danger Mouse in Broken Bells, doing soundtracks and even trying a little acting. He’s come back home on Port of Morrow, the Shins’ fourth record, and his wistful pop sensibility remains very much intact. Perhaps the biggest difference here is the immediacy of his lyrics, which... 

GARBAGE

GARBAGE Not Your Kind of People [Stunvolume] Garbage’s first album in seven years proves the long hiatus has done nothing to diminish the band’s chemistry. All the ingredients of the group’s post-grunge sound—techno-tinged abrasiveness, deadly pop hooks, Shirley Manson’s brainy sex appeal—are sharper than ever. Typical is “Blood for Poppies,” which churns with buzz-saw guitars, a sing-along melody and Manson’s effortless way of... 

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now [Bloodshot Records] On his fourth album, Justin Townes Earle’s lonesome croon is a cool salve for the downhearted. A musical drifter, he’s  stepped away from traditional country to explore the sultry arrangements of Muscle Shoals. The album begins with “Am I That Lonely Tonight?” a solemn dirge that references his famous father, Steve. Going forward, Earle shuffles... 

PHIL COLLINS

PHIL COLLINS  Live at Montreux 2004   [Eagle Eye Media] When Phil Collins announced his retirement from music in March 2011, it was no surprise—but it was a sadly muted way to end the diverse and surprising career of a madly underrated talent. Beginning as drummer extraordinaire for Genesis in 1970, Collins eventually led the group to crossover success as its unlikely lead singer. He spent the 1980s balancing work with that band, his own massive... 

ANOUSHKA SHANKAR

ANOUSHKA SHANKAR Traveller [Deutsche Gammophon] It’s no longer enough to say that sitarist  and composer Anoushka Shankar is keeping alive the legacy of her iconic father, Ravi Shankar. With two decades of experience on the instrument and several albums that explore diverse aspects of her artistry—from traditional solo Indian classical to experimental full-band works that integrate Indian elements with cutting-edge electronica—Shankar is... 

MARGOT & THE NUCLEAR SO AND SO’S

MARGOT & THE NUCLEAR SO AND SO’S Rot Gut, Domestic [Mariel] After conflicts with their label and some soul-searching, Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s have chosen the path of self-sufficiency with their fourth album, Rot Gut, Domestic, which was fan-funded through PledgeMusic. Musically, the band has taken its freedom as an opportunity to crank up the amps, and the album opens with several tracks of lumbering, heavy riffs reminiscent... 

FLYING COLORS

FLYING COLORS Flying Colors [Mascot] Flying Colors spotlights five veteran musicians with unbeatable progressive pedigrees—guitarist Steve Morse (Dixie Dregs, Deep Purple), drummer Mike Portnoy (who recently exited Dream Theater), bassist Dave LaRue (a frequent collaborator of Morse and Portnoy), keyboardist Neal Morse (formerly of Spock’s Beard) and singer Casey McPherson (Texas’ Alpha Rev). Think Toto—top-flight players who don’t look... 

ROBIN TROWER

ROBIN TROWER   Farther On Up the Road: The Chrysalis Years 1977-1983  [Chrysalis/EMI] Unlikely as it may now seem, boys and girls, there was a day when Rod Stewart deferred the spotlight to guitarist Jeff Beck—for at least a couple of albums in the late 1960s, it was Beck’s name who graced the cover of the albums they made together. The notion of the superstar lead guitarist to whom the singer played sidekick survived into the ’70s, at least... 

BRENDAN BENSON

BRENDAN BENSON What Kind of World [Readymade] On What Kind of World, Jack White’s Raconteurs partner Brendan Benson puts on his solo-artist hat and taps suitably homemade ’70s vibes ranging from rock-star riffing to AM-gold smoothness. For every electric guitar solo, there’s a piano ballad to counter. There is a little genre-shifting in the songs’ accents; the horns on “No One Else but You” sound as if they might segue into a chorus of... 

FAIRPORT CONVENTION

FAIRPORT CONVENTION By Popular Request [Matty Grooves]  Fairport Convention walks a musical tightrope between pleasing recent converts and serving the diehard fans that still champion the days when its earlier lineups pioneered British folk-rock. Consider By Popular Request something akin to a perfect balancing act, a 45th anniversary celebration that reconsiders classic songs without adulterating them. It’d be easy to credit the fresh energy... 

LUKE ROBERTS

LUKE ROBERTS The Iron Gates at Throop and Newport [Thrill Jockey] After writing most of his first album (last year’s Big Bells and Dime Songs) on borrowed guitars, Luke Roberts finally got an instrument of his own—a Collings 0002H, to be precise. The sudden luxury allowed him more time to work on songs for this follow-up. Extra time aside, Roberts’ latest retains the arid feel of his debut, and the songs sound well-worn and timeless. His voice... 
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