Hirami – Rose Windows – Americana, a little dozy but not as bad as their group picture might have you believe.. In has the dreamy tiredness of tasteful Americana, too tasteful, so middleclass and so make of it what you choose – B-
you know how how in poor societies, the denizens eat every part of an animal, my dad, who was raised poverty stricken, would eat the brains, the marrow in the bones, and the eyes of sheep. Well, Leonard Cohen has been doing the same thing with his music ever since he discovered all his money was embezzled. Two live albums, and now oddball covers from his concert soundchecks Can’t Forget: A Souvenir Of The Grand Tour. I’m not complaining at all, the one thing I’ve heard is a goodie. And while the Paul Weller, Surfer Blood, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and JD Souther, all have my attention., most anticipated remains Leonard Cohen.
There is nothing I don’t like about this song,Eryn sounds great, Prince is spectacular, he plays everything here but it is voice that pulls you short, he doesn’t use his falsetto often, but “at least a little better” is so slight, but it is very lovely. This is an anthem without the browbeating. Well done, Prince, a good song does more for peace than words or gestures, or even money, ever will.
Bang That – Disclosure – Hand the EDM duo, they got the name of the beat crazy song right, a banger that bangs with nary a Sam SMith of Emeli Sande in sight, this is an old fashioned martial beats go crazy track – B
Jame’s lyrics are very sweet,an ode to his Nana who was a diehard Sox fan, and died with a smile on her face after watching her team come back from 0 – 3 Yankee lead in the playoffs in 2004, to win the World Series for the first time since the year Nana was born: 1918
Why We Live Here – Tyler Farr – Not as bad as you thought it was, I find it hard to agree with a man who has a gun and a bible near his bed -neither of which I would touch with a ten foot pole but some stuff works conceptually and this does. Plus it sounds good… ps I knew he’d get to the beer eventually – B+
Traveller – Chris Stapleton – Country songwriter Chris sure can write em, this is the real deal country balladeering that needs no excuse at all and no time no annouce itself. Two drinking song, a devil song, travelling tracks and lots and lots of heartache, superb playing (the best harp since David Barnes) and songs, songs and songs. George Strait should cover every song – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
The Waterfall – My Morning jacket – When they say it is MMJ’s best work in years, what they mean is it is better than Circuital… which it is, but so are more things. A lovely, low key, very melodic break up album that will come to life on stage – B
Cold Daggers’ is a dangerous and furious track, with Callaway’s aggressive and hurt vocals, while the music is slowing creating a chaotic punk mess crashing in weird distortion. The loud drums follow the tambourines and directly pound in your chest, while the track builds a dark suspense as if we were stuck in the middle of a gun duel in some crazy western
The album barely peaks and never dips, unlike the first two albums weed isn’t an essential character in the stories; she seems a little less dependent on artificial paranoia. Instead, there’s a snapshot of a woman nearing her thirties and running in place in the California days and California nights as her youth slips by and that is as close to be precisely what Best Coast want it to be.
“24 Frames” is a think of extreme beauty, it is a gorgeous clicked in jigsaw puzzle about how one relationship is mirrored in a later one, both major, both central for the man Jason is singing to, watching the girl is like watching his father in a movie: they are doing the same destructive things.Isbell (last writer, mostly because the story has ended) is William Faulkner as a pop star
This looks difficult but it is a no brainer. Everything I’ve heard off the new Mumford And Sons and My Morning Jacket albums has been pretty damn second rate and both look like disasters. Sure I like Palma Violets, youngsters and with talent, and I like Todd, an olderster with talent. The Metz album will be a goodie, basically definitely and Boney James… wait a second BONEY JAMES??? The most anticipated is Best Coast
Old Rock N Roll – Young Fathers – The Scottish Nigerian trio suggest here something that is just about self-evident, “I’m tired of playing the good black, I’m trying to have to hold back”. Which makes sense but not as much as Young Fathers equating racism with money and power. Which is where the real stuff is.
In which the songs catch up with the year, 63 songs, three from Brian Wilson alone, on an album that isn’t as good as its best moments and whose best moments are among the best of the year. And Young Fathers, who are as good as their best moments and who I still expect to crack the US in some form or the other.
Carrie And Lowell – Sufjan Stevens – His mother left Sufjan when he was three maybe four, and again, and again, and then she died, and left Stevens to deal with it by writing the most equisitely beautiful album of this or many years.
In Another World – Dwight Yoakam – A thriller where classic rock meets classic 80s fueled country rock, like Tom Petty if he was more county or maybe Bruce himself, a galloping beat and a powerful vocal – A
The following excerpts from Steve Crawford’s book “1000 Essential Songs from the 1970s focuses on Texas born or Texas based artists with entries from Waylon, Willie, Ray Price, ZZ Top, Billy Joe Shaver, the late, great Townes Van Zandt, and many other musicians who were completely comfortable wearing cowboy hats.
Sure, songs remind you of times and places but does it remind you of some girls. For me I tend to let the girl dictate to me the song and I don’t mean our song, she might not even know it is our song, but somethings a song and a girl will come together…. Here is five such times.
Infinity – Mariah Carey – Wow, could this sound any more 1990s? This is not even full on hip hop flavor Mariah; this is Boys II Men flavorful with a little speed singing to give it a contemporary feel. The song ain’t bad and her range remains amazing. Mariah is having something of a great 2010s, not that anybody is noticing – B+
Smoke Machine – Nick Catchdubs – The co-owner of Fool’s Gold Records (with the great A-Trak) is pretty great himself. This is hip-hop meets dance, but the sounds are really different and they are really different on every track. “Don’t let it drop” is more than an aesthetic it is a point of view, and every single track here gets through in the end. Nick’s debut album, and as good as this genre can possibly get. – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – B+
So as far as I am concerned The Magic Whip is a return to form. Good, sometimes not good, never as clever as it thinks it is, but with some good Blur songs to add to the catalog. A lot better than I thought it would be.
Come Pick Me Up – Ryan Adams – I offered up Ryan’s name as a musician as great as any in rocks golden age and got pooh poohed the othe day. He is too prolific not to be hit and miss. And this souvener from a two day stand late last year proves his problem is the same as Prince’s in the 1990s and maybe Steve Earle’s today… he doesn’t know when enough is enough. Still, a gorgeous version of a great song – B+
Doncker should be considered in the same breath as Kanye West in the 2010s. Simply: he is the best. Resolutely color blind, Doncker is a musical chameleon, a superb electric blues guitarists at home in any genre you throw at him. He is always working, always writing, always playing around town and always always always creating
I’ve had the new Blur on heavy rotation all week and while it is certainly better than I expected, “There Are Too Many Of Us” was the worst of it, I am obviously not dying of expectation. Raekwon? Maybe. Odessa, the Weepies, Crocodiles, the Brian Jonestown Experience… all subjects of great interest, BUT MARTIN GORE SOLO???? This is actually his second solo album (anybody remember 2003’s Counterfeit?) and wins most anticipated with ease…
In original form, the “worm” was strictly covered in black leather. But I wanted to make it more like a living thing, like an evolutionary side step, a creature that is stuck in its codependency and has rather few possibilities in this world but still has the capacity to dream of better things.
From an early “Be Still And Know” to a late “Softly And Tenderly” and a closing “Holy, Holy, Holy”, Grant maintains a calm, sweet quiet entry into faith: if we can’t join her in Jesus, we can join her in sound.
the reviews have been brutal. Pitchfork gave it a 1 out of 10. And Rolling Stone gave it three stars but that’s one star if they weren’t angling for the next Metallica front cover exclusive interview. I despise consensus opinion, it seems to be an affront to freedom (freedom is always the freedom to dissent). Nothing is that black and white.
What was the most important and influential U.S. city in terms of 1970’s music? A strong argument could be made for Philadelphia. Producers Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff, and Thom Bell created a silky soul sound that resulted in a string of hit records early in the decade and the disco beat was popularized by MFSB drummer Earl Young. Listed below are 18 tracks that were Philly creations, then several more inspired by the same sound and production techniques
Hallelujah – Panic! At The Disco – Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith kinda blew the now a duo back in 2011 (but no worse than the other half of the bands the Young Veins). However, all is forgiven with this fine Gospel meets emo rocker… time to panic again – B+
Waiting On You – Sam Lewis – Country singer songwriter, with a fine voice that sounds a little like Van Morrison, and some good and some really really good songs. The playing is delicious and sweet and the mood is complete in itself. This is a soulful, intelligent, lovely album. A pleasant surprise – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – B+
As It Is have a timeless sound that should not go unnoticed because they could literally fit in an era of Pop Punk with the sound they’ve crafted. They are a sweet mix of the old-school ways of Pop Punk and the new-school, gritty and angsty tunes that have come out in the last few years.
After the British Invasion took America by storm in 1964, U.S. radio listeners long remained fascinated with U.K. musicians, who often were simply updating the Delta and Chicago blues traditions with a better sense of style. The U.K. bands represented below range from the traditional hard rock and metal of The Who and Led Zeppelin to the more progressive rock styles of The Moody Blues and Pink Floyd
This is pure artistry and alive pop art: it covers the bases. And it is New York, watching the traffic flow in a true blues greatness. “It’s gonna be alright”, Phil claims in the midst of the concrete jungle that is Blueslands. I believe him.
Synths and strings, dark and light, dick jokes and no hopes, money, pussy… a real disappointment but it is still Tyler, still the voice,still the deflated attitude, and still some very good songs. Just not the future of rap or the voice of his generation.
OK, let’s discuss who the most anticipated won’t be. It won’t be Tom Delonge not acting his age again, it won’t be the overrated Speedy Orti, or the overrated Passion Pit or the plaily lousy Yelawolf. I gotta go with Alamaba Shakes, if for no other reason than the first single is the “Tusk” soundalike “Future People” -which is just excellent.
Their organ/percussion heavy version of “Apache” wasn’t a hit, but was latter dubbed “the national anthem of hip hop” and has been sampled by Missy Elliot, LL Cool J, Moby, Nas, and Grandmaster Flash. Drummer Jim Gordon, who had played with Derek and the Dominoes, was responsible for what would become one of rap music’s most famous beats.
Tony gives everything to the album, especially a playfulness and a depth of artistic integrity. On his website, Succar is quoted as saying “Even the horn lines, I would transcribe them from Quincy Jones’ productions and then apply them to the arrangement in a different way. The essence of every song was respected. I gave it my best to create this very thin line between what Michael did with his production and what I brought to the project.”
You can’t play without a scorecard fellow pop pickers, and as the terrain of new releases changes like at the speed of a blink of the eye, here are two newer new releases.
Second Hand Heart – Dwight Yoakam – Hip honky tonk lives on, and this is better than the 2012 album 3 Pears, which was pretty good itself. In full voice, Dwight dials back the years with a collection of country rockers from left of Bakersfield… “Dreams Of Clay” sounds suspiciously like “Suspicious Minds” (just sayin) – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
Remember about The National’s performance at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2013? They repeatedly played the same song (‘Sorrow’) over and over for six hours…. What. a. bore. No, this is not even close to what they think, since they want to release the damn thing!
despite Wolf being a sophomore album in every meaning of the term,Tyler is with the possible exception of Kendrick, the most important rapper of the decade and this might deliver. Or it might not. So I was ready to annoint young Tyler, when I noticed Dwight Yaokum had a new album and rumors abounded that it was a return to old form… but I went with Tyler any way.
If your ears were glued to pop radio stations in 1981, you would have been enjoying “Endless Love” by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie, “Lady” by Kenny Rogers, and “Theme from ‘Greatest American Hero’ (Believe It or Not)” by the handsome and multi-talented Joey Scarbury. Scarbury also recorded “Flashbeagle” for the 1984 Peanuts special It’s Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown, an animated tale about a rogue pooch who was repeatedly arrested for indecent exposure.
Wilson can make music that sounds like the slow yearn of conclusion. It is one of his many strengths that even as a teen surfer sensation there was something else there, there was an awareness of thought and solitude. “Somewhere Quiet” is the ghost of “Please Let Me Wonder”.
New week, new songs,…. it’s true, so many bands release songs at the beginning of a commencing week. Today we can listen to material from three bands that had temporarily disappeared from our radar, so here are one relaxing tune and two other songs that will shake you up.
The first single off the second album was Huge, the second less so, but the second was the weakest link on this very beautiful folk rock -though not folk like Roger McGuinn, it is an indie folk with rural sweep and uplift and some of the strongest songs of the year – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
So as illness takes me down yet I can’t, I don’t have the time, to be taken down, so somewhere I am in both places, three places , somewhere I am ill, somewhere I am working and somewhere I have drifted back to a late sunny afternoon. And all three are listening to “The Only Living Boy In New York”.
The Body – Wale – Jeremih makes Miguel look like Marvin Gaye and this song makes Wale look like Wale and my point is that after pretty good hour of music, this is too ordinary to close it out with – C
On the last track of the four song EP, Jessi sings “I’ am just the subject of gravity” and the lyric hits home in a minimal acoustic setting. It’s a wonderful thing, a near perfect song among near perfect songs. I’ve heard Jessi will be off to college this year.I am sure she will do great, though with this sort of gift for songwriting I sure hope it won’t distract from her songwriting too much.
Some good ones here. Obviously a new Brian Wilson is always good news even if I have my doubts and Waxahatchee is a talented woman, the Mountain Goats single off this album was awesome and Drug Cabin are first rate but no…. I am going to see Young Fathers. on Friday and I can’t wait and the two new songs I’ve heard off their new album are excellent and they are the best new band of the year. A huge band.
The Neighborhood Bullys include drummer Reijo Kauppila and Zach Jones on rhythm guitar, which means they are in the business of selling you on a groove on song after song. It is like being pushed in a crowded club, it gets your attention but you know it is the price you pay for great rock and roll.
