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 December 5th, 2006
in Album, Review and 2006.
Katherine Whalen’s latest, Dirty Little Secret, will make you do a double take as it covers a wide territory of styles, sometimes skittering between them in a matter of breaths. It is an ambitious album that takes risks with production as well as with arranging and composing which yields moments of genius as well as some where you might find your fingers seeking the skip button. In the end though Whalen, along with collaborator David Sale, create a compelling album that is worth giving a listen.
What mars the listening experience for me is the sheen of Adult Contemporary that glosses many of the tracks, in particular the Dance Pop of You-Who which feels awkward and forced as if Sale and Whalen hashed out the song’s concept in a committee with the express purpose of targeting the mothers of tweens. Whalen’s voice really isn’t suited to confection, rather it works best on songs where she can settle into a warm smokiness. Conversely, she shines on the breathy number Angel which is steep deeply in nostalgia for 80’s style Pop.
Where Whalen truly shines is when she is working over Jazz styled Rhythm & Blues numbers like the opener, “The Funnest Game” and “Want You Back”, and this is where the arrangements feel looser and the one-man ensemble of Sale sounds frisky even with the drum programming that drives the track. These numbers are a nice balance to the more ambitious attempts on the album and are definitely a reward when taking the work as a whole. Dirty Little Secrets, in the end is a really good album, and it will be interesting to see what direction she’ll take in the future.
Published by James November 6th, 2006
in Album, Review and 2006.
This just landed on my desk and I haven’t had a whole lot of time to digest it but I am really enjoying what I am hearing.
The Blue Van is a handful of Danes that have put together the most uncanny revival of late 60’s early 70’s American Rock and Roll I have heard in a long time. From gritty yet shimmering guitars, warm B3’s, and a drummer that sounds like he is trying to put his sticks straight through the kit their sophomore album, Dear Independence, is a loving nostalgia filled trip through AM rock–if you’re in doubt give “The Time Is Right” a sample with its taste of BTO melodies and harmonies. It is a short and sweet trip that is the perfect compliment to summer, especially the swing and sway of “Momentarily Sane” which has me wanting to belt out the chorus at the top of my lungs alongside the honky tonk piano line.
You can grab a copy of it over a eMusic or likely what ever record purveyor tickles your fancy. Really good stuff.
Published by James September 28th, 2006
in Free Tracks, Album, Review and 2006.
I have a suspicion that David and Scott are corrupting influence as these last few weeks have been spent listening to more rock acts than I have in the past few years. Between them and my rampant nostalgia for sounds that mine memories some fifteen years in the past I’m losing sight of the House and Jazz that usually dominates my playlists. Anyway, Willowtree released their sophomore effort, What a Way to Go!, earlier this year and it is a bright, upbeat pop album that rips through ten tracks in just over thirty minutes. Joel Ekelöf dulcet vocals are supported by a rhythm section seemingly joined at the hip that adds quite a bit of swing to each song, particularly with Andreas Hollgren’s crisp and gunshot like drum work.
“Berlin-Helsinki” Is the best example of the band’s lockstep approach to performing as the song, while minimal in composition it features several tempo shifts from verse to chorus with each voicing taking a different approach. From the snaking bassline and swaying drum work to the staccato and angular guitar riffs, the band projects an air of confidence in each other and comfort in what each will do. Ekelöf is at his strongest, projecting a radio friendly voice that is at once powerful but tinged with a sense of plaintiveness. It is a finely crafted pop song that is instantly mix ready as it the the more indie leaning “Summer TV” with its layers of guitars building up and washing out over the reverb dampened vocals.
What a Way to Go! is a fine album to cap off the summer, leading you by the hand into autumn. The album makes me pleased that I have been succumbing to my partners rock-centric ways, so if you are looking for a fun nugget of Pop than you can do no better than Willowtree. Highly recommended. Grab You Know It for free from their website along with some videos or stream four tracks over at Myspace.
Published by James September 26th, 2006
in Album, Review and 2006.
The Contingencies debut album has this amazing ability to pull me back some fifteen years, dropping me back into my freshman year at college when the world was a little sharper, brighter, and I felt eager to jump into each day. Viva Ole, in a crisp set of fourteen tracks, wrapping up into a tidy package much of the music I was introduced to at the time when I work the over night at the college radio station. There are elements of Sugar, Dinosaur Jr., The Bog Men, and even glimpses of The Pretenders and the 70’s work of Elvis Costello, all of which the band’s label admits might be considered a touch anachronistic in todays indie-rock scene. That aside the album is a nice backward-leaning yet forward-moving album that mines the best of the college rock scene that defined the Alternative genre in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
Dead center in the album are the best examples of The Contingencies brand of bright, shimmering rock with reverb damp guitars and chorus soaked vocals. “Up In The Clouds” presents a tight guitar line that struts about the song like a hopped up folk riff shining in all its sharp angularness. Towards the end of the song the direction shifts to a more sprawling and slightly grittier feel that alludes to how the band might come off as a live act: loose and and largely unconcerned with conventional structures, instead opting to play to the mood of the audience. “Nameless” follows offering moody vocals that drift outside of the composition buoyed on waves guitar with the treble boosted to the point of sounding like a series of shattered mirrors. “Ruthless Prix” sees them shift up to a sound reminiscent of The Bogmen circa “Closed Captioned Radio” with grit beginning to push aside the brighter tones.
While I’m not as well informed as my partners in crime here at CP headquarters, I have a decent handle on what makes my heart race and this album does. For the sheer nostalgia factor Viva Ole easily makes my Best of 2006 list with its shimmering guitars and crisp production the album tossing me back to those days when almost everything I was listening to was new, exciting, and important. You can stream two tracks over at Myspace or read up on the band over their label’s website and to spice up your next mix throw “Proud As Punch” onto and impress your friends and family with your taste.
Published by James September 12th, 2006
in Album, Review and 2006.
Classics, if you’re anything like me, is the perfect bridge between that pair of acid washed 501s with the tear in the left knee and the fact that Colette’s Hypnotized is still in weekly rotation. It is a decadent romp filled with crisp drum production and thick, heavily processed guitars that oddly evoke fond memories of all those long summer days grinding through “More Than A Feeling” because the guitarist truly believed Boston was the pinnacle of rock music. On their sophomore effort Ratatat joins the mathematical precision of beat making and juggling with all those fleeting moments in rock that might make you pause and think, “Hey, maybe guitarists aren’t so bad after all…”
This is an album about guitars or more accurately about hyper-distorted, freakishly compressed layers of tones that occasionally approximate six strings and a fretboard but more often than not have more in common with a synthesizers and racks of tone generators. This is not to say that Stroud is on the same page as DragonForce’s Li and Totman, rather his playing is definitely more understated, eschewing flashy technique and focusing on balance and interplay between melodies and sounds. “Montanita” shows him layering delicate tones that glisten with just enough tremolo to give a sheen of exotica yet the song still manages to retain grounded in the rock roots from which Stroud emerged.
Giving structure to all of it is the work of Mast, the brains and production behind the pop friendly beats that dominate the album. From the infectious dancehall inspired back beat of “Gettysburg” to the restrained Beatlesque psychedelia of “Tropicana” his work on the album demonstrates that it is far deeper than just a collection of hooks and bridges. It is his ear for composition and arranging that help this album span the world of bedroom beats and arena rock posturing; if you have any doubts check out the free stream over at Myspace of “Wildcat” with its campy cat growl and early 80’s bare-bones Disco rhythm section.
Slap “Lex” on your next mix to give it that much needed strutting cock-rock flavor and by all means grab the whole album if you have the chance even if it means the rock purists in your circle will wrinkle their noses at the hyperbolic guitar production and post-ironic harpsichord lick. Classics makes it onto my Best of 2006 list for the simple fact that it makes me like guitarists again, if only for a little over 40 minutes.
