Published by James February 22nd, 2007
in Album, Review and 2007.
With an easy country shuffle It’s Gonna Change conjures up images of flannel shirts, jeans, and high-top sneakers with a anxious but hopeful youth kicking about abandoned grain silos littered with broken whiskey bottles and crumpled cans of beer. It is a roots rock album that pulls a page from the Mellencamp and Young songbooks focusing on the struggle to make ends meet and that twitchy state of boredom that marks those final steps out of the teenage years.
Cassavettes puts forth a solid if sometimes predictable performance with the songs following closely the verse-chorus format that has been the hallmark of AM and FM rock. “Lightning In A Bottle” hints at their live sound with it stretching out past the nine minute mark and featuring several tempo shifts. The halfway point sees the band step back, stretch, and relax into a languid swing that would fit just right under the stars on a humid August night. In contrast, “On Our Own”, one of those post high school graduation anthems, has the band nailing that multi-part vocal harmonies backed by a wheezy harmonica, and acoustic guitar. It is easy to slip into the foot stomping and remembering what it was like to dig under the car seats for just enough gas money to make it over the state line.
Overall, I found It’s Gonna Change to be a surprisingly fun piece of Roots-Rock confection. Nothing earth shattering, just solid music that for me had me reflecting on those summer days and nights just after high school when everything seemed possible and the struggles profound. You can read up on the band over at their website and stream some of the tracks from the album over at their Myspace page.
Published by James February 7th, 2007
in Album, Review and 2006.
Seeing as my Spanish is limited to “donde está la biblioteca” which in most situation is damn near useless, this one not excepting, I cannot write about the lyrical content of the album and with Google Translate helping me along I am just as lost as I was in high school trying to memorize how to ask for directions to the train station. However, I know when I like something and I like Hagalo Usted Mismo. I like it an awful lot.
Hagalo Usted Mismo tears by in ten tracks clocking in under 40 minutes, which for some indie rockers is epic, but for myself it is just enough to make me play it all over again to satisfy the jones for Chilean Rock that spans The Beach Boys, Beatles, Boogie Woogie, and even brushes up against some more traditional numbers. The sad part is that the band broke up so here I am late to the party and it’s already over. Typical.
Anyway, the highlights for me are the soft swing of “Cerrar Y Abrir” which has a sort of gentle Elvis Costello feel to it with its lush layers of cymbals and reverb damp guitars. The creaky percussion and wheezing reeds of “Agua Bendita” is hypnotic as the song lurches about drunkenly from chorus to chorus. My favorite track though has to be “Bestia” with its lilting early 70’s AM Gold melodies floating along on a lonely flute and bouyed by some truly crisp guitar work. It has to be one of the most satisfying Pop number I have ever had the pleasure to listen to, ever.
Los Tres prove that in Pop music you don’t need to have mastery over the language to enjoy yourself and Hagalo Usted Mismo is one such album that transcends language barriers. Do yourself a favor and grab this album and show some love to a band that after some twenty years unplugged.
Published by James January 31st, 2007
in Lists.
In an obvious attempt to avoid posting anything of substance I bring you my half-thought out list of twenty-four must have albums if stranded on a desert island (as inspired by this Flickr pool).
[Reading left to right, top to bottom]
A Band of Bees—Free The Bees
Amon Tobin—Permutation
Arcade Fire—Funeral
Bebel Gilberto—Tanto Tempo
Black Uhuru—Sinsemilla
Boards of Canada—Children Have The Right To Music
Burning Spear—Creation Rebel: The Original Classic Recordings From Studio One
Count Basie—Listen My Children And You Shall Hear
Dave Brubeck—Time Out
DJ Shadow—Entroducing
Don Caballero—American Don
Duke Ellington—Latin American Suite
Fugazi—Repeater + 3 Songs
Jaga Jazzist—What We Must
John Coltrane—Ole Coltrane
Led Zeppelin—Houses of the Holy
Miles Davis—Kind of Blue
Nati Cano’s Mariachi Los Camperos—Llegaron Los Camperos!: Nati Cano’s Mariachi Los Camperos
Nick Drake—Pink Moon
Nitin Sawhney—Beyond Skin
Paris Combo—Motifs
The Future Sound of London—Lifeforms
Yes—Tales from Topographic Oceans
Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Isaac Stern—Shostakovich: Trio, Op.67/Sonata, Op.40
There you have it. From Classical to Mariachi with a little of everything else in between.
Published by James January 25th, 2007
Just struck me this morning that we have been doing this for a year now! Some 260 posts later and we are still finding things to write about. 
Published by James January 23rd, 2007
in Album, Review and 2006.
This is one of those rare albums that is recommend by a friend at the right time and place so that it syncs perfectly with the particular tilt of your world at the moment. Words Are Dead is one such album and Amy is one such friend as she advocated–actually demanded–that people stop and hear Horse Feather’s latest (you can read her spot on review over at eMusic).
Though the arrangements are sparse, conjuring the brisk chill of late autumn or the hard snap of deep winter, there still remains a quality of lushness and fullness to them. Justin Ringle and Peter Broderick craft music that is best described as the intersection of moody folk and bluegrass. There are elements of Norfolk and Western’s melancholia but rubbed with the saltiness of The Black Twig Pickers resulting in songs that play out like a long sigh but are weighted just enough so that they do not just drift away on the slightest of breezes. “Blood On The Snow” is a perfect example of this with the strings providing a counter melody to the vocals as the roll through the piece. “Honest Doubters” sees the violin come forward to stab home the main melody often competing with the vocals to wrestling them for center stage.
Words Are Dead is truly one of those albums that becomes a seasonal piece, an album that every year you pull out to listen to as you watch the world slow as it heads into Winter’s slumber. It would be more that worth it to head over to their Myspace page you can stream and download four of the tracks from the album. Highly recommended.
Published by James January 17th, 2007
in Album, Review and 2006.
One of the challenges that I set before myself was to explore more Jazz, in particular artists that a creating compelling and novel work today. The reason is that I am a hypocrite because of the fact that with regards to Pop musics (Rock, Punk, Electronic, etc) I crave and demand new releases, anything more than a few years old is passed over like day old sushi. However, with Jazz, I am mired in works often no younger than thirty years and that truly is a travesty as there are albums and artists that are making beautiful art who should be listened to. Nils Wogram & Root 70 is one such ensemble.
Nimble and articulate would be good adjectives as would delicate and gentle. Like Mulligan, Wogram takes a seemingly ungainly instrument, in this case a trombone, and transforms it into lyrical dancer that can move with both speed and grace. The opening track to Fahrvergnügen demonstrates his sensitivity and care with approaching his instrument as it features flowing duet with Hayden Chisholm on alto sax. Following is “The Myth” which showcases his sharp precision as he winds his way through tight clean lines.
Wogram, however, is not the only star in the group as Root 70, comprised of Hayden Chisholm on alto sax and bass, Matt Penman on double bass, and Jochen Rückert on drums shows themselves to be in fine form. Rückert’s drumming is crisp with restrained power that bridges nicely between the type of work heard some forty years ago and today’s desire to hear a sound that is more forthright–”Bird’s Trip” highlights his style of playing well. Penman is restrained yet warm as he hold up the bottom end and his solo on Desert is captivating.
Do yourself a favor and grab the two free tracks from the album, “Breathing” and “The Myth“, from his website. Fahrvergnügen is highly recommended, especially if you are like me searching for new sounds in Jazz that still satisfy your cravings for the past.
Published by James January 11th, 2007
in Lists.
Suffering from 3I (Infant Induced Insomnia) I’ve decided to take the lazy route and repost my list from my blog and while I’m titling this a Best of 2006 it is by no means comprehensive nor definitive. In 2006 I purchased and listened to some 94 albums, which works out to roughly 8 per month and 2 per week, or in other words a metric-crap-ton of music and this is not to mention the albums kicked my way by friends and family as well as taking the time to stream music from Last.fm. Long excuse short, this list best approximates those albums that have been nodding my head and bouncing my feet.
Other notables that I haven’t gotten to reviewing yet…
And there you have it, 2006 has to have been one of the best years I’ve experienced in terms of finding and loving new music.
