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 November 8th, 2006
in Meta-Chatter.
Always one to play armchair psychologist I recently picked up the solo works of Whalen and Mathus, both formerly of Squirrel Nut Zippers and both formerly married to each other. Seeing both cutting and dropping albums withing months of each other and recorded in the aftermath of their relationship makes my inner voyeur tingle with delight. I plan of delving into each album a little deeper but here’s my National Enquirer® style thoughts.
Mathus is restrained in dealing with the break up and Old School Hot Wings reflects it as it plays like a bunch of old friends gathered around the kitchen table plucking out tunes and sipping whiskey. Occasionally he busts out a backhanded slap of a tune like “Wouldn’t Treat a Dog” but for the most part he is boxing up his feelings, tying it tightly up with string and dropping it down a deep well. He is finding comfort in the sounds of the past and the intimacy of friendships of few spoken words. That said, his album is a slow burner of Deep South Country and Blues and is more than worth picking up for the thick and humid atmosphere he and Knockdown South have crafted on these tracks.
Whalen, on the other hand, is announcing her freedom at the top of her lungs and Dirty Little Secret is aired out like laundry. She isn’t hiding anything; she is done with it and wants the world to know. She and her friends are driving with the top down and throwing all her old baggage out the back. Rather than falling back into nostalgia like Mathus, she is reinventing herself while exorcising the past from her psyche. Because of this the album finds itself all over the place with some hits and some misses but it is an exhilarating journey and you cannot help but be compelled to grab a piece of her luggage and chuck it out the window hollering, “You go girl!”
More to follow but in the meantime check out three tracks from Dirty Little Secret and three from Old School Hot Wings.
Published by James July 20th, 2006
in Free Tracks, Album, Review and 2005.
The National stumbled into my field of hearing when I heard their track “Abel” on the excellent and free 2006 Pitchfork Music Festival Sampler over at eMusic. Their sound reminds me of a place where New Wave can take Alt-Country out for a quick spin on the dance floor and just for a moment urban angst is comfortable in the arms of country Gothic. Where a drawl touched with gravel and ennui rolls alongside the bright bending tones of a Gretsch semi-hollow body buoyed by delicate brush work by the drummer.
Alligator, for the most part, is a quiet album. There are no real barn burners, searing leads or explosive solos. It is headphone music that lopes along. It is a pleasant album but the compositions often feel to similar and threadbare in their starkness leaving me wanting for more; more dynamics, tempo shifts, key and time signature changes. Alligator just moves along to easily for much of the album making the soundscape feel like a road trip down much of America’s highways.
Like everything in this world, though, there is an exception. “Abel”, the track that drew me in, is a great homage to Springsteen’s work with the E Street band with its infectious hooks, plain yet soul baring lyrics, and shout out loud chorus of “My mind’s not right” shakes the album from its somnolent introspection, infusing it with energy for the remaining handful of songs and ending on “Mr. November” which belatedly addresses my desire for changes in the soundscape.
Alligator is a good album, solid in its execution, production, and lyricism but I found the best place for it was tucked into a more boisterous collection of albums to offer respite and temper an over abundance of energy. It is the perfect complement to a warm and lazy afternoon. You can find it over at eMusic.
Published by James May 30th, 2006
in Album, Review and 2006.
The first thing that struck me about the album happened long before I cued it up for listening: the album cover. Aside from the obvious comparisons to Smell The Glove the stark and odd choice for artwork is no indication of the the soft, serene Country brushed songs nestled inside. To Find Me Gone is a soft yet crisp summer album that floats along in a reminiscent manner, channeling the work of The Band and at times Neil Young’s work on Harvest though it maintains a distinct voice that marks Vetiver as it’s own entity and demonstrates how Andy Cabic has been evolving the group’s sound beyond the confectionery psych-folk sound that marked the first album.
“Lost & Found” is a perfect example of the slow, breezy sound of the album as the drifting strings and breathy vocals capture the sensation of laying on your back picking shapes out of the clouds passing over head while the bright pop and squeak of the guitar so closely mimics sparrows flitting from tree to ground and back again. It is undemanding yet beautiful, with quiet melodies that slowly lull care and worry from your mind, like the cascading pedal steel work on “Busted” which adds a layer of expansiveness to the snug production.
Not all the tracks possess a somnolescent quality. “Red Lantern Girls” rounds the midpoint to explode into wall of sound with the lead guitar grinding out endless sustains on waves of distortion while the drumming steps up out of hushed percussive elements to pound out the back beat. It is at once a surprising turn and a refreshing one like jumping into a cold river on a hot June day. “Won’t Be Me” maintains the pace with a sweetened retro-flavored country number that swings and sways with the reverb turned up just enough to give the feeling that you are in surrounded by dancers on a late Saturday night in a local dance hall.
To Find Me Gone is wistful, sweet with just the barest taste of bitterness for substance, and is the perfect compliment to lazy summer days. While it is not a demanding album that challenges the listener with depth in lyrics and breadth in arrangements it is a finely crafted work that is comfortable in its fondness for the folk rock of the Seventies. Recommended. You can pick it up at either eMusic, which has “Busted” as a free track at the moment, or Amazon.
*Note*
There seems to be some debate as to the track titles and arrangement on the album, most notable are the write-ups referring to the scorching end of “Red Lantern Girls”, track nine of the limited release CD and the eMusic release, however it appears that the eMusic copy is fairly well screwed up with both the tracks and the labeling having been shuffled all over the place. Having spent the better part of the weekend trying to tease out what track is what, a enormously difficult task, I might have it right thanks to a kind user over at eMusic and some samples detective work (streaming at Vetiverse wasn’t working). Corrections, however, would be most appreciated.
