The Countdown continues with Jesse Malin at No. 4.

Welcome to the top 25 for 2010 Countdown! Each day we'll countdown, today we continue with number 4, culminating with our (okay, my) numero uno album of the year. When they're handy I'll borrow my earlier reviews from the KC Free Press. Their site has gone dark, but I am able to salvage those reviews from my original files, generally. 

The general hipster apathy surrounding an artist like Jesse Malin makes me want to strangle somebody. Everyone I've ever enticed to one of his shows has left a convert. Still, his aesthetic is a little too old school for all of the attitude dancers. You know what? Here's the message ... and listen close ... think for yourself, feel something. If you're part of some sub-cult from which you are deriving your identity, wake up - It will eventually consume your individuality. The ethos of rock 'n' roll, its deepest essence is about celebrating the joy of life and extending a big fat finger to anyone and anything that stands in the way. Jesse Malin gets that. If you're extending an awkward glance toward the guy next to you who might think he's hipper than you while stressing about what he thinks of you (whooo) ... get a life!

I welcome all comments, criticisms, questions and dialog in general.

25. Jon Langford - Old Devils (Bloodshot)
24. Vaselines - Sex with an X (Sub Pop)
23. Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do (ATO)
22. Magnetic Fields - Realism (Nonesuch)
21. Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be (Sub Pop)
20. Peter Case - Wig! (Yep Roc) 

19. Bettye Lavette - Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook (Anti-Epitaph) 

18. Super Wild Horses - Fifteen (Hovac) 

17. Parting Gifts - Strychnine Dandelion (In the Red) 

16. No Age - Everything In Between (Sub Pop)

15. The Fall - Your Future Our Clutter (Domino) 

14. First Aid Kit - The Big Black and the Blue (Wichita Recordings) 

13. Owen Pallett - Heartland (Domino)

12. Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone (Anti-Epitaph)

10 (tie). J. Roddy Walston and the Business - s/t (Vagrant)
10 (tie). Aloe Blacc - Good Things (Stones Throw)
  9. Roky Erickson & Okkervil River - True Love Cast Out All Evil (Anti-Epitaph) 
  8. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest (4AD)
  7. Wounded Lion - s/t (In the Red)
  6. Diamond Rings - Special Affections (Secret City Records)
  5. Bleach Bloodz - Pure Rock N Roll / Live and Raw / Devil Magick (local releases)

   4. Jesse Malin & St. Mark’s Social – Love it to Life (SideOneDummy)

 

  Punk energy, classic rock n’roll songwriting, passion, smarts – what else ya need?

 

Sample hipster conversation:

Zach: “Hey, how did it go with Zadie last night?’

Zeke: “Ah, she was a deck tassel, I guess. She was nice.”

Zach: “Dude, I introduce you to a beautiful raven haired babe with dark eyes who reads Dave Eggers and Rick Moody and ‘nice’ is all you have to say?”

Zeke: “Yeah, okay, she was no average chipper.”

Zach: “Did she give you the frigidaire?”

Zeke: “Not at all. But isn’t she kind of mallternative? Don’t you know any three-legged chicks with magenta eyes who speak Esperanto backwards?”

Here I sit at my wife’s expensive computer (“fancy Apple laptop”- as Iggy once sang) knowing that I just won’t be able to ‘sell’ Jesse Malin to hipsters looking for the musical equivalent of three-legged chicks with magenta eyes who speak Esperanto backwards.

Screw’em. Jesse’s great. And so is his new record Love it to Life.

Ah, don’t cry for Jesse Malin. Yeah, he’s moved from label to label, struggled to break beyond an adoring cult audience (at least he has one), and he wound up back in New York broke in 2008 after trying in vain to take the excellent Glitter in the Gutter to the proverbial ‘next level.’ He slept on his sister’s couch uptown, a long Lexington Avenue train ride from his East Village and LES haunts, and contemplated a life beyond rock n’roll. Fortunately, fate intervened in the form of film director Shane Salerno. Salerno was working on a documentary about the late author J.D. Salinger and suggested that Malin write some songs for the film. 

An avid childhood fan of Salinger, Malin re-read Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey, and the rest of Salinger’s oeuvre, contemplated them from his 42-year old perspective, and decided that what he really needed to do was meet the great man. Instead, he got arrested for trespassing. Apparently, he had to find a YouTube video of his duet with Springsteen (“Broken Radio,” from Glitter in the Gutter) to persuade the cops that he wasn’t just some nutball stalker. Hey, tell Bob Dylan about it, huh?

Of course J.D. bought the farm. I’m sure that Malin, like thousands of fans, was saddened (I was). But he was probably grateful to the old buzzard too, because Malin’s Salinger homage/adventures inspired a new plunge back into songwriting. “The Archer” and “Lonely at Heart” are directly derived from the Salinger fixation. Beyond that, revisiting Salinger, along with producer Ted Hutt’s (Lucero, Gaslight Anthem, Flogging Molly) guidance compelled Malin to focus on writing a collection of songs that spoke to his twin obsessions with rock music and New York City and their inseparability in Malin’s story.

The result is Love it to Life, Malin’s best record yet (although The Fine Art of Self-Destruction and Glitter in the Gutter are no slouches). Rehearsed in the basement of an Avenue A bar and recorded cheap and cheerful at Greenpoint’s Mission Studio and Sonic Youth’s Think Tank in Hoboken, LITL features the closest thing to a working band that Malin’s worked with since the demise of D Generation – a loose, but rocking ensemble dubbed the St. Mark’s Social. It’s obviously enough of a band &in Malin’s mind to be co-billed on the album cover. The album title comes from a dedication Joe Strummer made for an autograph requested by a teenage Malin – “Love it to Life, Joe Strummer.” It’s also a twist on Alice Cooper’s best record Love it to Death, something I’m pretty sure that Joe and Jesse both were altogether aware of.

The Clash’s “Gates of the West” was included on Malin’s cover-thon, the 2008 release On Your Sleeve, and among the inspirations for LITL there’s something about the Clash vibe that stands out, especially the punk-goes-sentimental feel of Give’em Enough Rope, probably the great underrated Clash record. LITL blasts off with “Burning on the Bowery,” much as “Safe European Home” instigated GER. In Blood on the Tracks fashion Malin establishes the length and depth of his connection to the street that spawned CBGB’s, going back to his grandfather’s days selling liquor on The Bowery and up through “Ginsberg’s tears and Thunder’s cross.” 

“All the Way from Moscow” (Mott the Hoople, nod to) with its images of a Russian girl who insists that “the twin towers was an inside job” and of a gypsy “playing nylon string guitar” flies by in the track two position at break-neck pace. Both songs feature spare, communicative sparring from the St, Mark’s Social and Malin’s classicist affection for girl group cum Ramones “whoo/whoa” choruses.

Girls - Jesse’s always letting the good ones get away; the Salinger inspired “The Archer” sounds something like Steve Earle produced by Phil Spector and includes opining lyrics like “one girl I never got over, stupid cupid missed, six shots and I fell like a soldier.”

Like “Burning on the Bowery,” “St. Mark’s Sunset” localizes Malin’s New York rock universe. It projects both an autobiographical arc and pop-lovers melody in common with Ian Hunter, serenading the kids “from the outskirts and the suburbs” who hung out with Malin in his hardcore (Heart Attack, his first band) punk days, acknowledges the changes in style and fashion, but remembers “when we used to laugh at everybody walkin’ past” as if that much might not really have changed.

All of these tunes have infectious melodies and heartfelt lyrics. Passé maybe; I don’t know. But if, like me, you groove on that sort of thing, LITL can’t come more highly recommended. Smart fan that he is, Malin has great taste that’s evidenced in his music. “Disco Ghetto” sounds like Joey Ramone touched by a little rhythm n’ blues. “Burn the Bridge,” a clarion call to the “kids” to stake a chance on a different kind of future (their own and America’s), is equal parts Springsteen and the Replacements. 

There’s a touch of Strokes guitar styling to “Revelations,” a rousing rocker that raises familiar Malin themes of renewal and redemption, as he declares he will “make a transformation like Bowie in Berlin.” The breathless “Black Boombox” memorializes days spent on the pavement and down in the basement listening to the soundtrack of a lifetime as Malin name checks the Miracles and the Only Ones.

With its slower tempo, Suicide meets Springsteen atmospherics, and starkly downbeat lyrics “Lonely at Heart” is a stop-you-in-your-tracks capper to an album that, despite its varied lyrical terrain, is a certified rock n’roll upper. But it’s perfect, really. It nails expressly the sometimes-dark undertow that informs Malin’s lyrical vision even on the breezier tunes. The singer’s “angel never shows;” he “drinks in self-defense’” and addresses the almighty “Dear God, like is hell.” Inspired by a Salinger short story, one can assume that the perspective is not entirely personal, but Malin sings his lyric from an emotional place that swears he’s more than a little acquainted with the protagonist’s emotional pit. A faint piano figure paraphrasing a melody line from Alice Cooper’s Love it to Death record closes the album with a nod and a wink.

There you have it. A rich, imagistic, deeply personal collection of songs produced by a mature, but vibrant singer-songwriter and the best band he’s ever put together. A masterful punk-rock serenade with roots that transcend a present where, as Malin says “you can download something in five minutes into your toothbrush.”

Sold? If not, maybe I can hook you up with that three-legged, magenta-eyed chick that speaks Esperanto backward.

Reverberating: 9.1 (original), upgraded to 9.3

The Bleach Bloodz (collective output ... three releases in 2010) secure the No. 5 spot in the Top 25 for 2010 Countdown!

Welcome to the top 25 for 2010 Countdown! Each day we'll countdown, today we continue with number 5, culminating with our (okay, my) numero uno album of the year. When they're handy I'll borrow my earlier reviews from the KC Free Press. Their site has gone dark, but I am able to salvage those reviews from my original files, generally. 

The No. 5 selection on the Countdown is a little unusual. It honors the prolific and exciting output from Kansas City's Bleach Bloodz. They've released a studio album, a live album, and a studio ep over the course of the past twelve months. There have been really fine releases from innumerable local and regional artists in 2010, some of which I will discuss at more length in later posts. But the Bloodz, in terms of the quality of their work, its sheer volume, and the way it resonates for this writer, stand out among them for this past year.

I didn't review Live and Raw, a document of their rockin' February performance at Midwest Music. For the record, it's a scorcher and a treat from start to finish. My KC Free Press reviews of Pure Rock N Roll and Devil Magick are included below.

I welcome all comments, criticisms, questions and dialog in general.

25. Jon Langford - Old Devils (Bloodshot)
24. Vaselines - Sex with an X (Sub Pop)
23. Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do (ATO)
22. Magnetic Fields - Realism (Nonesuch)
21. Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be (Sub Pop)
20. Peter Case - Wig! (Yep Roc) 

19. Bettye Lavette - Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook (Anti-Epitaph) 

18. Super Wild Horses - Fifteen (Hovac) 

17. Parting Gifts - Strychnine Dandelion (In the Red) 

16. No Age - Everything In Between (Sub Pop)

15. The Fall - Your Future Our Clutter (Domino) 

14. First Aid Kit - The Big Black and the Blue (Wichita Recordings) 

13. Owen Pallett - Heartland (Domino)

12. Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone (Anti-Epitaph)

10 (tie). J. Roddy Walston and the Business - s/t (Vagrant)
10 (tie). Aloe Blacc - Good Things (Stones Throw)
  9. Roky Erickson & Okkervil River - True Love Cast Out All Evil (Anti-Epitaph)
  8. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest (4AD)
  7. Wounded Lion - s/t (In the Red)
  6. Diamond Rings - Special Affections (Secret City Records)

  5. Bleach Bloodz - Pure Rock N Roll / Live and Raw / Devil Magick (local releases)

 

 Bleach Bloodz – Pure Rock N Roll (local release/available at better independent record dealers and on-line from CD Baby)

The midtown hipsters who dominate the local music scene probably don’t know what to make of the Bleach Bloodz. They rock out. They don’t sound like they are obsessed with college radio playlists. Or Pitchfork. They hail from Smithville - the Northland, not exactly Bohemian Central. But like the Rich Boys before them (two of the Bleach Bloodz are alumni), the Bleach Bloodz are putting the Northland on the KC rock n’ roll map in a big way. And attitude from hipsters … the Bleach Bloodz could give two shits.

I confess. I read the local press on Bleach Bloodz before writing this review. You know, for perspective. Okay - To summarize: Local scribes seem to like the band, as well they should. But while getting high marks for energy and soul, the band seems to consistently suffer the writer’s digs concerning a lack of originality. When a band is committed to a forty year-old template for rock n’ roll this critical caveat sounds justified. At first. Upon further consideration it’s, how shall I say it – a bunch of reflexive, tired, elitist crap.

Allow me a rhetorical question: Is a band necessarily more “original” if they reflect the influence of the Arcade Fire or Will Oldham rather than the Rolling Stones?  The answer? Let me help you – it’s NO. All artists base their sound on a set of aesthetic principles, stated or implicit. Everyone is influenced. Besides, one can be original and stink out loud. The more significant issues for the critic and the listener are two-fold: Do you like the influences that inform an artist’s work? And does the artist bring something vital and personal to those inspirations?

I think Bleach Bloodz, and their debut album Pure Rock N Roll, are pretty tremendous based on my answers (yes … and plenty) to those two questions. Bleach Bloodz’s music recalls the Rolling Stones before they labored under the yoke of being “the greatest rock n’roll band in the world.” Bleach Bloodz’s sound also echoes the entire “Nuggets” garage-rock idiom (the “cool” stuff like Chocolate Watch Band, as well as the pop tip represented by Paul Revere & the Raiders), and the bedrock stylings of Fifties Sun Records artists (especially the Killer, Jerry Lee Lewis). And as prevalent as the Stones/Dolls/Nuggets template is, there are songs on “Pure Rock N Roll” that divert a little from the playbook. “Average Guy,” for instance, delivers a distinctly Midwestern take on the Lou Reed songbook, sounding like a cool out-take from Loaded.

When you check out their myspace page you’ll see a laundry list of the band’s inspirations. Most of them are razor sharp and audible in the group’s music. The band have described themselves as “six not very cool guys making music inspired by cooler guys.” But no doubt, John Lennon and Brian Jones felt the same way in 1962.

Singer Troy Geoghegan (previously bassist with the Rich Boys), for all the Mick Jagger references he gets and will continue to get, more resembles the less known, but influential Roy Loney. Loney was the vocalist for the Flamin’ Groovies on their classic albums Flamingo and Teenage Head. Keith Richards is reputed to have said that Teenage Head was better than Sticky Fingers. Keith was probably right. The Groovies learned many lessons from the Stones, but they had, as the Bleach Bloodz have, a distinctly American sound, incorporating the hillbilly wail of Billy Lee Riley and the adrenalized punk snarl of the Stooges. Geoghegan’s presence helps distinguish Bleach Bloodz from the darker Stones clones like the Chesterfield Kings. He gives identity to a band that already has plenty of personality, humor being a saving grace for the Bleach Bloodz. It’s humor with a snotty, sexy edge that never turns to caricature, although the bitch slapping tone of “Quit Talkin” actually subverts the Iggy-esque (“Hard to Beat (Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell)” comes to mind) edge of the performance.

Guitarists Kyle Kampman (Carl Redcorn in the Rich Boys) and Steven Mack have studied well at the hands of master Richards (as well as the MC5, I suspect), and on “Til It’s Gone” Kampman sprays Johnny Thunders licks (noisier, more severely bent strings then the Stones/Sixties garage rock sound), while Micah Boise pounds out the “Personality Crisis” piano. Boise on keyboards brings the serious roll (not just rock) to songs like “Gotta Feelin.” His swinging feel marks him as a descendant of Jerry Lee Lewis, Ian Stuart and Alan Price. Boise brings an important instrumental voice to the band, especially in an idiom so guitar saturated.

Bassist Vincent Lawhon and drummer Jerad Meadows do more than hold down the groove, they drive it home. Meadows is more Jerry Nolan (Dolls) than Charlie Watts and his powerful playing is a big part of what keeps Bleach Bloodz from sounding like some fawning Sixties idol worshippers. I’ve heard bands with similar influences play it too conservatively. They wind up sounding like the rock n’roll version of the Dixieland bands that played in pizza parlors when I was a kid (Shakey’s anybody?). Bleach Bloodz avoid such peril by flat kicking out the jams!

Pure Rock N Roll lives up to its name. This record, like the band’s live show, is terrifically entertaining. This is slinky, swinging rock music- the kind that Trustafarian bands in college towns don’t deliver. The Bleach Bloodz are already recording new tracks, including some they describe as “psychedelic.” I think their intent is to retain the directness and simplicity of their music while expanding its’ stylistic range. Hey, that worked pretty well for the Rolling Stones.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Bleach Bloodz – Devil Magick (local release, available at better independent record dealers and on-line from CD Baby)

“Rockin’ new sounds from K.C.’s kings of the garage”

Pure Rock N Roll by the Bleach Bloodz was the best album from a Kansas City rock band in recent memory. Recorded by the six-piece lineup of the band in 2009, it put their distinctive K.C. spin on a vital rock style descended from the Rolling Stones and the New York Dolls.  The past six months have seen the Bleach Bloodz shrink by half. Now a trio, it’s taken the Bloodz a while to find their bearings. Their first gigs as a three piece were entertaining, but tentative. When they played the Crosstown Station this past Friday, though, they demonstrated that the trio version of the band has sorted things out.

Their set at Crosstown emphasized new material; the new originals built around the band’s own brand of New York rock, reflecting the influence of the Velvet Underground and the Ramones, as well as a taste of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, the Sonics, and every Nuggets and Pebbles collection. References aside, they sounded like the Bleach Bloodz - a lean, mean retooled version of a damn good band.

Recorded as a quartet with departed guitarist Kyle Kampman, Devil Magick offers hints of where the Bleach Bloodz is headed as a band. Even with Kampman still in the fold you can hear his stamp on the band’s music slipping away. And indeed there’s little if anything here that guitarist Vincent Lawhon can’t and hasn’t covered in performance. Lead vocalist Troy Geoghegan returns to bass (the instrument he played in the first edition of the Rich Boys). Jerad Meadows’ propulsive drumming continues to drive the band. Lawhon’s and Meadow’s background and harmony vocals get more emphasis in the trio format, and on the five tracks on Devil Magick.

“Sand Vibes” has a western (minus the country), hayride from hell quality reminiscent of the Gun Club. “I Wanna Tell You” recasts the Ramones as Hamburg vintage Beatles – Geoghegan’s Joey-meets-John vocals grabbing you by the scruff of the neck. In a bland universe of indie-rock singers, Geoghegan is the real deal, an unafraid disciple of rock’s commanding lead voices. In fact, if I have a complaint with Devil Magick it’s  that some of the mixes here tend to obscure his vocals. With both the band (and Troy’s voice) a tad too far into the red, tracks like “Tryin’ to Find” bury his singing, submerging his serious anima. My advice: put the boy front and center; he commands attention. Like the Black Lips, they’re better off keeping the mixing board voodoo to a minimum.

The title track and “Goin’ Down” each betray the Velvets influences in different ways. “Devil Magick” has the insistent VU rhythm that the Dandy Warhols and Brian Jonestown Massacre, among others, have employed to good effect. “Goin’ Down” put the vocals forward and has a nice “Here We Go Again” vibe.

Five new tracks from Kansas  City’s best rock n’roll band, Devil Magick is a snapshot  of a band in transition – flawed, but glorious. Devil Magick will be available at Bleach Bloodz shows, from selected retail outlets and from CD Baby.

 

Reverberating: A collective 9.2

The Countdown Continues with Diamond Rings at No. 6.

Welcome to the top 25 for 2010 Countdown! Each day we'll countdown, today we continue with number 6, culminating with our (okay, my) numero uno album of the year. When they're handy I'll borrow my earlier reviews from the KC Free Press, which as of today means I'm screwed because that site just went dark. Thus, I'll be scrambling to find original copies of the reviews for Countdown titles 1 through 5.
Woe is me. 

Not an issue this time, though. This is a NEW REVIEW (just 4 U) of our No. 6 record for 2010 on the Countdown - a nifty record by Diamond Rings called Special Affections.

I welcome all comments, criticisms, questions and dialog in general.

25. Jon Langford - Old Devils (Bloodshot)
24. Vaselines - Sex with an X (Sub Pop)
23. Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do (ATO)
22. Magnetic Fields - Realism (Nonesuch)
21. Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be (Sub Pop)
20. Peter Case - Wig! (Yep Roc) 

19. Bettye Lavette - Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook (Anti-Epitaph) 

18. Super Wild Horses - Fifteen (Hovac) 

17. Parting Gifts - Strychnine Dandelion (In the Red) 

16. No Age - Everything In Between (Sub Pop)

15. The Fall - Your Future Our Clutter (Domino) 

14. First Aid Kit - The Big Black and the Blue (Wichita Recordings) 

13. Owen Pallett - Heartland (Domino)

12. Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone (Anti-Epitaph)

10 (tie). J. Roddy Walston and the Business - s/t (Vagrant)
10 (tie). Aloe Blacc - Good Things (Stones Throw)
  9. Roky Erickson & Okkervil River - True Love Cast Out All Evil (Anti-Epitaph) 
  8. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest (4AD)
  7. Wounded Lion - s/t (In the Red)


  6. Diamond Rings - Special Affections (Secret City Records)


"Spare songs of love and resilience for the dance floor"

John O’Regan, the man behind Diamond Rings, is a lanky 6’4” former athlete who bears a slight resemblance to Leonard DiCaprio. As Diamond Rings he looks more like some high school geek dressed as David Bowie’s ‘Aladdin Sane’ persona for Halloween. The gawky look may be screwy, but Diamond Rings’ Special Affections is anything but. O’Regan’s made one of the best records of 2010. His work on Special Affections is a pitch perfect blend of Casio and Telecaster elements, of Eighties analog synthesizer sounds and spare, ringing guitar lines and power chords.

The sonic platform may evoke Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, the Human League and the Cars, but the songs also reflect a broader vision. They can embrace Springsteen’s quotidian passion (“It’s Not My Party” pulls the neat trick of riffing off Lesley Gore’s “It’s My Party” while maintaining the doomed, dead end ethos of a song off Darkness on the Edge of Town), the melodic arc of the Beach Boys (the ‘ooh’s’ on “All Yr Songs”), and hip-hop influenced vocal phrasings. While this seamless blend is impressive, were it not for the quality of the songs the vitality of O’Regan’s synthesis would pall. But the songs are damn good. Electro-trappings aside, like Vince Clarke’s best songs (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure), these tunes could be performed on an acoustic guitar or piano and be equally convincing. At that level, Diamond Rings are the antithesis of an amped-up confection like Sleigh Bells

Not only do O’Regan’s low budget electronics not detract from these songs, they anchor them. Resembling such archetypes as Iggy’s “Nightclubbing,” they succeed as pop songs and dark grooves, grooves that settle in and are in no hurry. O’Regan has an uncanny knack for sensing which songs benefit from what sort of instrumental base - which profit from minimal piano lines, and which need predominant guitar (“Something Else” – scathing, and of course a title borrowed from Eddie Cochran).

As a lyricist O’Regan is poetic and direct; Special Affections’ key themes are love, friendship and identity (songs like “On Our Own” and “You and Me” develop all three). Some songs resonate because they establish meaning through humor. O’Regan has all sorts of fun with music fan in-jokes (not just the Lesley Gore reference in the title of “It’s Not My Party,” but, from the same song, lines like “born under punches and a real bad sign” – alluding to the curious combo of Talking Heads and Albert King). Then, of course, “You Oughta Know” references Joy Division (“I’ve been looking out for unknown pleasure”).  He doubtlessly gets that the song’s title is mischievously borrowed from that more famous fellow Canadian, Alanis Morissette. O’Regan seems to take some perverse glee in referencing tunes, lyrics and sounds, but his jokes are never at the listener’s expense.

Speaking of Joy Division, O’Regan’s crooner baritone evokes Ian Curtis - minus the manic edge. Sometimes he sounds like Johnny Cash morphed with “Berlin” era David Bowie. Others, he suggests Nick Cave or Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy). That said, in both timbre and rhyme droppin’ sensibility O’Regan maintains a clear identity. O’Regans’ doleful delivery has the knack of lending authority to his slighter rhymes while his square, but decided swing conveys a sarcasm that keeps his weightier lyrics from turning pretentious.

O’Regan continues to work with a Toronto post-punk guitar outfit called D’Urbervilles. Their sound is at once more guitar based and dance oriented. In the final analysis there’s something about the rigidity of Diamond Rings’ “Garage Band” rhythm tracks that roots the songs, something that gives them depth compared to the jerky post-wave qualities of the D’Urbervilles, at least as observed on the tracks I’ve auditioned. Throughout Special Affections, Diamond Rings is the ideal vehicle for John O’Regan’s aesthetic – a little bit synth-pop, a little bit rock, and all in the service of his surprisingly seductive songs.

Reverberating: 9.2

Reverberations Countdown - No. 7, Wounded Lion

Welcome to the top 25 for 2010 Countdown! Each day we'll countdown, today we continue with number 7, culminating with our (okay, my) numero uno album of the year. When they're handy I'll borrow my earlier reviews from the KC Free Press. 

I welcome all comments, criticisms, questions and dialog in general.

25. Jon Langford - Old Devils (Bloodshot)
24. Vaselines - Sex with an X (Sub Pop)
23. Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do (ATO)
22. Magnetic Fields - Realism (Nonesuch)
21. Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be (Sub Pop)
20. Peter Case - Wig! (Yep Roc) 

19. Bettye Lavette - Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook (Anti-Epitaph) 

18. Super Wild Horses - Fifteen (Hovac) 

17. Parting Gifts - Strychnine Dandelion (In the Red) 

16. No Age - Everything In Between (Sub Pop)

15. The Fall - Your Future Our Clutter (Domino) 

14. First Aid Kit - The Big Black and the Blue (Wichita Recordings) 

13. Owen Pallett - Heartland (Domino)

12. Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone (Anti-Epitaph)

10 (tie). J. Roddy Walston and the Business - s/t (Vagrant)
10 (tie). Aloe Blacc - Good Things (Stones Throw)
  9. Roky Erickson & Okkervil River - True Love Cast Out All Evil (Anti-Epitaph) 
  8. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest (4AD)


7. Wounded Lion - s/t (In the Red)

 
"Post-grad, two-chord, cut-up, butt-shakin'"

There’s a vital tradition of rock neo-primitivism. Sometimes it’s a product of the musician’s limited skills (the Ramones); as often as not it’s at least in part aesthetic strategy (Talking Heads). Of course, it’s frequently both (Wire). Such is the case with Wounded Lion, I suspect. These Los Angeles conceptualists combine pan-generational two-chord rock with simple, but sophisticated lyrics. Their self-titled debut is a gas.

Singer Brad Eberhard is a painter who, not unlike Brian Eno, David Byrne and other visual artists before him, is attracted to the confines of minimalism. Eberhard sounds a little like Byrne, a bit like Edwyn Collins from Orange Juice. And his band plays with a fierce, grinding urgency that connects the dots between the Rolling Stones and the Pixies. Eberhard’s lyrics are composed from stray stuff, or at least the stray stuff of a 2010 California intellectual. Granted, the early rock pioneers never wrote about satyrs (“Pony People”) or Star Wars ephemera (“Dagoba System”), but really this isn’t too far divorced from Billy Lee Riley’s “little green men” in “Flying Saucers Rock and Roll,” both find wonder and meaning in the modern mythos of pop culture detritus.


Delivered with authority and brevity it never ceases to amaze me how potent two (sometimes three) chord rock songs can be if the messengers have personality and point of view. Throw in some smart moves like the “There She Goes Again” (Velvet Underground) bridge for “Hungry” and the Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments harmonies on “Belt of Orion” it’s obvious that Wounded Lion are sharp enough to be students of Wire.

In fact, much of this debut reminds of Wire’s debut Pink Flag another arch, knowingly stripped down blast of post-rock. Wounded Lion’s aleatoric sensibilities are manifest in “Belt of Orion’s” mixture of astronomical wonder and “Chinese Rocks” (Heartbreakers/Ramones) paraphrases. The Burroughs-ian cutup approach to lyrics, especially on “Silver People,” which weaves Buffalo Springfield lines and Coors-Lite commercial verbiage is further evidence of Wounded Lion’s fractured methods.

Wounded Lion isn’t recommended for fans of prog-rock or worshippers of fast-fingered virtuosity, but if you love art-damaged, stripped-down rock this band is for you.

Reverberating: 8.3 (original), upgraded to 9.1

Reverberations Countdown-No. 8, Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

Welcome to the top 25 for 2010 Countdown! Each day we'll countdown, today we continue with number 8, culminating with our (okay, my) numero uno album of the year. When they're handy I'll borrow my earlier reviews from the KC Free Press. 

I welcome all comments, criticisms, questions and dialog in general.

25. Jon Langford - Old Devils (Bloodshot)
24. Vaselines - Sex with an X (Sub Pop)
23. Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do (ATO)
22. Magnetic Fields - Realism (Nonesuch)
21. Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be (Sub Pop)
20. Peter Case - Wig! (Yep Roc) 

19. Bettye Lavette - Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook (Anti-Epitaph) 

18. Super Wild Horses - Fifteen (Hovac) 

17. Parting Gifts - Strychnine Dandelion (In the Red) 

16. No Age - Everything In Between (Sub Pop)

15. The Fall - Your Future Our Clutter (Domino) 

14. First Aid Kit - The Big Black and the Blue (Wichita Recordings) 

13. Owen Pallett - Heartland (Domino)

12. Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone (Anti-Epitaph)

10 (tie). J. Roddy Walston and the Business - s/t (Vagrant)
10 (tie). Aloe Blacc - Good Things (Stones Throw)
  9. Roky Erickson & Okkervil River - True Love Cast Out All Evil (Anti-Epitaph) 


   8. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest (4AD)

Dream states, punk power and wounded, alienated youth” 

 

Bradford Cox has suggested that the inspiration for the title of Deerhunter’s beautiful new album Halcyon Digest was “the way we write and rewrite and edit our memories to be a digest version of what we want to remember, and how that’s kind of sad.” It’s his intense sense of the sadness of memory that drives Halcyon Digest. And it’s only reflective of a deeper, experiential melancholy; after all, what Cox describes is simply what human memory does. It’s Cox who locates the pathos in it.

Halcyon Digest is a culmination of the vision that Cox has built over the course of several Deerhunter releases and his solo work as Atlas Sound. That’s not to say that it isn’t a group effort. After all, two of the best songs on Digest are by guitarist Lockett Pundt. “Desire Lines,” at 6:42 and positioned as the closing track on a theoretical (on cd, anyway) side one, achieves a mesmerizing, repetitive density. Lundt’s shimmering guitar lines are equal parts Cure, Sonic Youth and kudzu-draped Strokes. The pensive lyrics (“what was once grace now undertows”) reinforce Cox’s marriage of the wistful and glum. Lundt’s ‘Fountain Stairs” allies a “Waiting for my Man” urgency to a more blithe vision (“when I look around I can feel it spinning, feet on the ground head on the ceiling”).

So, indeed – Deerhunter is very much a band. Yet, as the rest of Halcyon Digest demonstrates, Deerhunter is very much Bradford Cox’s band. Cox’s yearning captures the bland horrors at the core of the suburban dream, expressing defiance and rage in muted, stream of consciousness poetics. With empathy for a young lad doubtlessly like himself in “Don’t Cry” he suggest the boy’s “mansions are fading still,” and on “Revival” Cox uses a Bolan/Bowie guise and a modified Spector beat to illuminate “all these darkened hallways.”

There’s a voluntary isolation to the Lennon-like “Sailing.” “Memory Boy’s” chiming guitars and pounding (dig the propulsive double-time on the bridge) beat carry a reminiscence that alluedes to the departure of a hippie father. There’s an Everly Brothers-go-Twin Peaks unease about “Basement Scene,” as it captures that moment in youth when “I don’t want to get old” transforms into “I wanna get old.” ‘Helicopter” is harrowing, an elliptical answer to novelist Dennis Cooper’s grim saga of a young male sex slave. The song’s enveloping, almost Elizabethan charms make it both enchanting and haunted.

Cox turns up the heat on “Coronado,” an evocation of rejection and rage with a musical lineage that goes back to Diamond Dogs era David Bowie. Cox goes solo for the album’s closing track “He Would Have Laughed.” Dedicated to Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr. (Jay Reatard), “Laughed” is a do not go silent epitaph about questions answered and unresolved - it’s also a one man band tour de force that evokes Lindsey’s work methods.

Deerhunter’s sound is derived from many sources – from the Clean to Stereolab, from Kraut-rock to Motown. Together, Cox and Lundt, with bassist Josh Fauver and drummer Moses Archuleta, have created a sound that’s dreamy and ambient, but powered by punk at the same time. Some of their songs are sheer pop pleasures; others drift in and out of your consciousness. Halcyon Digest is a near perfect expression of their art – a millennial time capsule full of lost youth, alienated affections and the dreams that remain.

Reverberating: 9.0 (original), upgraded to 9.1

Roky Erickson at No. 9. The Top 25 for 2010 Countdown! continues

Welcome to the top 25 for 2010 Countdown! Each day we'll countdown, today we continue with number 9, culminating with our (okay, my) numero uno album of the year. When they're handy I'll borrow my earlier reviews from the KC Free Press. Such is the case with this piece on Roky Erickson. 

I welcome all comments, criticisms, questions and dialog in general.

25. Jon Langford - Old Devils (Bloodshot)
24. Vaselines - Sex with an X (Sub Pop)
23. Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do (ATO)
22. Magnetic Fields - Realism (Nonesuch)
21. Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be (Sub Pop)
20. Peter Case - Wig! (Yep Roc) 

19. Bettye Lavette - Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook (Anti-Epitaph) 

18. Super Wild Horses - Fifteen (Hovac) 

17. Parting Gifts - Strychnine Dandelion (In the Red) 

16. No Age - Everything In Between (Sub Pop)

15. The Fall - Your Future Our Clutter (Domino) 

14. First Aid Kit - The Big Black and the Blue (Wichita Recordings) 

13. Owen Pallett - Heartland (Domino)

12. Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone (Anti-Epitaph)

10 (tie). J. Roddy Walston and the Business - s/t (Vagrant)
10 (tie). Aloe Blacc - Good Things (Stones Throw)

  9. Roky Erickson & Okkervil River - True Love Cast Out All Evil (Anti-Epitaph)


"Astonishing return from the abyss by a rock pioneer"

There’s a documentary film, directed by Keven McAlester, which shares its name with one of Roky Erickson’s classic songs, "You’re Gonna Miss Me." The film chronicles Roky Erickson’s descent into madness. It covers his lost years (hell, decades), a downward spiral precipitated by one lysergic voyage too many, the absurd barbarism of American drug laws and enforcement, the indictable cruelty of the Texas penal system, and his own family’s bizarre psycho-religious preoccupations. The story is tragic. That’s on overused word. Wide receivers pull a hamstring and miss a playoff game and it’s a “tragedy.” Roky Erickson’s story is the real deal.

A bit lost in this tragic tale is the reason, outside of simple human empathy, that anyone gives a shit. It’s the music. Roky Erickson is a remarkable figure in rock music history. His band, the 13th Floor Elevators, made three studio recordings in the sixties that influenced countless musicians (artists like R.E.M., ZZ Top, Primal Scream, Doug Sahm, T-Bone Burnett and the Jesus and Mary Chain contributed to a 1990 “tribute” record called Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye). His solo work from the seventies and eighties, forged through the fog of mental illness and depression, still adds to his myth. His “horror-rock” with the Aliens was nearly as celebrated and influential as his work with the Elevators. Shock, novelty and other such notions aside, Erickson is a wonderful, expressive singer and a remarkable songwriting talent. For ample demonstration of his depth and breadth as a writer I would steer you to a tremendous collection on Shout Factory called I Have Always Been Here Before.

In the early part of the previous decade, Erickson was rescued from the stasis of his mother’s loving, but misguided care (she had religious reasons for denying Erickson schizophrenia medications) and custody was granted to his brother Sumner. Sumner, a tuba player in the Pittsburgh Symphony, had escaped the Erickson family’s religious entrapment and despair. His intelligence and caring quite simply saved Roky’s life. As Will Sheff’s liner notes to True Love Cast Out All Evil plainly state, there are years Erickson will never get back. There was damage done to his psyche and his intellect. Thankfully, though, that’s not the end or the essence of the story.

Cool as that was, it in no way, shape or form prepared me for the triumph of True Love Cast Out All Evil. This album is a revelation, an artistic rebirth, and a joyous collaboration between Erickson and Okkervil River and Austin, Texas band with a pretty impressive resume of their own.

Cast Out’s song stack is bookended by two songs that derive (as do the recordings themselves) from Erickson’s days at The Rusk Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where Roky was sent after a pot bust to commingle with murderers and rapists. The psychedelic Biblical vision of “Devotional Number One” opens the album, the more hopeful, direct “God is Everywhere,” concludes it. The songs in between speak to the whole range of emotion and experience contained in Erickson’s remarkable story.

He pulls no punches, but these songs are amazingly free of self-pity; this is just Erickson telling it like it was, and is. “Be and Bring Me Home” finds him shouldering not his heavy load, but just his “given” load. “Bring Back the Past’ is a thrilling two minutes of 12-string folk-rock. “Please, Judge” makes poetic record of Erickson’s plea for freedom; written during his incarceration, it’ s all the more compelling for its use of third-person voice. There are few comparisons to this music when it comes to depth of expression — maybe Bob Dylan and Richard Manuel’s “I Shall Be Released.” “Please, Judge” is followed by the barely contained rage of “Johnny Lawman,” a one-line (repeated seven times) howl from the bottom of Erickson’s existential hell. Okkervil River plays like a hurricane behind him, a perfect musical representation of the lyric’s twisted portrayal of the law’s perversion. Vocally, Erickson may have lost some of the top end of his range, but he’s never sung more expressively. The impact of these performances is at once chilling and heart-rending.

Okkervil River is a marvel throughout. They project the regal authority of early Procol Harum, the massive power of Mott the Hoople, the nimble moves of the Band, and the howling distortion of early Velvet Underground. Cast Out would not be the powerful statement that it is without their committed musicianship. Guitarist and producer Will Sheff is especially central to the album’s success. It was his task to cull an album’s worth of songs from the roughly 60 songs submitted for consideration by Erickson's management. His selections not only present the diversity and depth of Erickson's talent, they tell a story. It’s a story of abject misery (“Goodbye Sweet Dreams”) to be sure, but it’s finally a tale of renewal (“Forever” — ‘One is not a style. One is not a trend’), family (“Be and Bring Me Home” — an especially dramatic and soulful vocal performance), love (the title song) and possibility (“Birds’d Crash”).

True Love Cast Out All Evil is the sound of an artist reborn. It features some of Roky Erickson’s finest, deepest singing. Okkervil River’s accompaniment is as natural, essential and empathetic as the Band’s on Dylan’s Planet Waves album; itself a statement on pain, love and the stuff of life itself. Like Dylan’s music, this music is Americana in the truest, deepest sense of the term. Rooted in blues, folk, country, gospel and rock, the sounds of True Love Cast Out All Evil dispel any latent notions of Erickson as some psychedelic freak and confirm his status as a great American artist.

Reverberating: 9.3 (original), downgraded to 9.1 (it's a tremendous record, but my early enthusiasm has been ever so slightly tempered)

Aloe Blacc (in a tie for No. 10) as the Top 25 for 2010 Countdown! continues

Welcome to the top 25 for 2010 Countdown! Each day we'll countdown, today we continue with number 10, culminating with our (okay, my) numero uno album of the year. When they're handy I'll borrow my earlier reviews from the KC Free Press. Sometimes, I'll need a new review (or revised, actually, from the "R" blog) like this one!

I welcome all comments, criticisms, questions and dialog in general.

25. Jon Langford - Old Devils (Bloodshot)
24. Vaselines - Sex with an X (Sub Pop)
23. Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do (ATO)
22. Magnetic Fields - Realism (Nonesuch)
21. Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be (Sub Pop)
20. Peter Case - Wig! (Yep Roc) 

19. Bettye Lavette - Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook (Anti-Epitaph) 

18. Super Wild Horses - Fifteen (Hovac) 

17. Parting Gifts - Strychnine Dandelion (In the Red) 

16. No Age - Everything In Between (Sub Pop)

15. The Fall - Your Future Our Clutter (Domino) 

14. First Aid Kit - The Big Black and the Blue (Wichita Recordings) 

13. Owen Pallett - Heartland (Domino)

12. Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone (Anti-Epitaph)

10 (tie). J. Roddy Walston and the Business - s/t (Vagrant)

10 (tie). Aloe Blacc - Good Things (Stones Throw)

"Aloe Blacc hits the refresh button for Soul"




Panamanian born Aloe Blacc brings the skills he developed as a rapper (a decade in the hip-hop duo Emanon) to his second record
as a neo/retro soul singer on the Stones Throw label, and the results are splendid. His vocal influences range from Marvin Gaye to Gil Scott-Heron, but over the course of Good Things Blacc asserts his own soul vision. He may not have the chops of Marvin, but he’s a soulful, supple singer whose hip-hop informed
phrasing gives him a clear identity.

The production by the Stones Throw crew evokes old school, Seventies soul
music, but it’s fresh enough to sound totally contemporary. Leon
Michels, on keys, guitar and sax, knows his Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye
(What’s Goin’ On), and Charles Wright and the 103rd Street Rhythm band -
bringing the funk and enhancing the songs. Nick Movshon’s bass playing is an
encyclopedia of soul and funk bass, endlessly inventive, moving the songs,
sometimes stealing the show by not trying to steal the show.

Blacc’s songs honor his heritage while extending it. If the catchy, arresting
capitalist critique ‘I Need a Dollar’ isn’t an anthem for these times, I don’t
know what is. And “Life So Hard,” with its There’s a Riot Goin’ On vibe isn’t
far behind. Blacc shows his stylistic range with a knowing, nuanced take on
Lou Reed’s ‘Femme Fatale.’ His ‘Mama Hold My Hand’ echoes both Bill Withers
and 2Pac, while standing confidently in their esteemed company.

There’s a not so quiet revolution going on in contemporary rhythm ‘n’ blues.
Singers as diverse as Raphael Saadiq and Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed, or Mayer
Hawthorne and John Legend are going to the well of classic soul and drawing
waters of melody, invention and humanity that are bringing a genre thirsting for real
human emotion back to life. Good Things absolutely lives up to its name; it’s a fresh,
original collection of songs from a singer-songwriter who understands that modern black
music has to look back in order to move ahead.

Reverberating: 9.0

J. Roddy Walston (in a tie for No. 10) as the Top 25 for 2010 Countdown! continues

Welcome to the top 25 for 2010 Countdown! Each day we'll countdown, today we continue with number 12, culminating with our (okay, my) numero uno album of the year. When they're handy I'll borrow my earlier reviews from the KC Free Press. Sometimes, I'll need a new review (or revised, actually, from the "R" blog) like this one!

I welcome all comments, criticisms, questions and dialog in general.

25. Jon Langford - Old Devils (Bloodshot)
24. Vaselines - Sex with an X (Sub Pop)
23. Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do (ATO)
22. Magnetic Fields - Realism (Nonesuch)
21. Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be (Sub Pop)
20. Peter Case - Wig! (Yep Roc) 

19. Bettye Lavette - Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook (Anti-Epitaph) 

18. Super Wild Horses - Fifteen (Hovac) 

17. Parting Gifts - Strychnine Dandelion (In the Red) 

16. No Age - Everything In Between (Sub Pop)

15. The Fall - Your Future Our Clutter (Domino) 

14. First Aid Kit - The Big Black and the Blue (Wichita Recordings) 

13. Owen Pallett - Heartland (Domino)

12. Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone (Anti-Epitaph)

10 (tie). J. Roddy Walston and the Business - s/t (Vagrant)

"Boys from Baltimore rock like their lives depend on it, and they probably do."


How to describe J. Roddy Walston and the Business?

They do play some rock ‘n’ roll. Big ol’ rock ‘n’ roll, too, damn it. It’s too crazed and punk-tinged to be “classic rock,” and it’s insufficiently parochial to qualify under the current definitions of garage-rock; too much retro-garage stuff is either too nice (mannered) or too naughty (crappy playing and recording=authenticity).

This music has roots, but it sounds like it blew right out of the barroom – fresh and ready. Frankly, Walston and the Business sound like a train wreck. Jerry Lee Lewis could be the engineer. Slade, AC/DC and T. Rex are drunk in the dining car. Led Zeppelin is high and staring down the tracks from the observation deck at the back of the train. They don’t see the crash coming, an approaching head-on featuring two cars, careening in opposite directions – one’s filled with members of the Replacements and the Stones (rock critic approved); the other is driven by Kid Rock, and Black Oak Arkansas are partying in the back seat. Yup, this Southern rock dynamo is not a straight line Pitchfork cinch. Hipster alert – if you’re scared of beautiful, vulgar rock ‘n’ roll music beware: Scurry home to your Bon Iver and Animal Collective records, now!

Emerging from this glorious train wreck, J. Roddy and his gang sound like kids who ran from the Baptist church, but still full of fervor they are ready to blow the roof off any dump they play.

I can’t tell what the hell J. Roddy is on about all of the time. It’s down to the bone stuff – living, loving, and drinking. He dances on the proverbial edge (“Brave Man’s Death”), and parties (“Don’t Break the Needle” with its dirty double entendre) to be sure. On “Don’t Get Old” Walston implores his ladylove to (not) do exactly that. Next, he launches into a roadhouse stomper called “I Don’t Want to Hear” which mixes the band’s Zeppelin II stomp with ‘c’mon everybody’ vocals straight outta Springsteen and his love for Gary U.S. Bonds. Throughout, Walston pounds the ivories (a genuine piano) like a man possessed. Logan Davis (bass) and Steve Colmus (drums) approximate the Jones-Bonham tandem beautifully, while guitarist Billy Gordon lets fly like Ariel Bender in Mott the Hoople.

J. Roddy Walston and his boys practically defy criticism. This is music for driving too fast in your death-to-the-environment mobile. Not that they sound like Kings of Leon, but they provide a lot (rather than a little) of what those preacher’s boys promised on their first album, way back when they sounded like avatars of a new suck-free Southern rock, before they started dating models and dreaming of U2. That promise was that the rough beast that blew out of the American south ecstatic and guilty, black and white, sacred and sexy would never die. If J. Roddy Walston and the Business are any indication, that great beast still roars.

Reverberating: 9.0

Mavis Staples at No. 12 as the Top 25 for 2010 Countdown Continues!

Welcome to the top 25 for 2010 Countdown! Each day we'll countdown, today we continue with number 12, culminating with our (okay, my) numero uno album of the year. When they're handy I'll borrow my earlier reviews from the KC Free Press. Sometimes, I'll need a new review like this one!

I welcome all comments, criticisms, questions and dialog in general.

25. Jon Langford - Old Devils (Bloodshot)
24. Vaselines - Sex with an X (Sub Pop)
23. Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do (ATO)
22. Magnetic Fields - Realism (Nonesuch)
21. Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be (Sub Pop)
20. Peter Case - Wig! (Yep Roc) 

19. Bettye Lavette - Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook (Anti-Epitaph) 

18. Super Wild Horses - Fifteen (Hovac) 

17. Parting Gifts - Strychnine Dandelion (In the Red) 

16. No Age - Everything In Between (Sub Pop)

15. The Fall - Your Future Our Clutter (Domino) 

14. First Aid Kit - The Big Black and the Blue (Wichita Recordings) 

13. Owen Pallett - Heartland (Domino)

 

12. Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone (Anti-Epitaph)

 

 

 "An American soul-stirring treasure adds to her great legacy"

Mavis Staples was one of the voices of civil rights, black pride and social liberation in the Sixties and Seventies. From their first recordings in the early Fifties on United, released when Ms. Staples was a teenager, through the self-titled finale in 1985, she was the voice of one of American’s musical treasures, the Staples Singers. Her father, Roebuck “Pops” Staples, an inextinguishable spirit and quiet guitar hero, passed in 2000, effectively ending the group’s fifty-two year run.

At seventy, the voice and spirit of Mavis Staples are undiminished. Her deep soul and legendary sound have attracted innumerable producers, including Prince and Ry Cooder. None have served her better than Jeff Tweedy. For Staples’ new release You Are Not Alone, the auteur behind Wilco wisely followed the producer’s equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath – first do no harm. With a singer of Staples’ depth all you need is the right songs and musicians in tune with her message. Tweedy found them. There’s no instrumental flash in these performances, but Wilco’s Pat Sansone on keyboards and ace blues guitarist Rick Holstrom (he made some great sides with the harmonica ace Johnny Dyer) provide the kind of playing that manages to be supportive and distinctive at the same time – no mean feat on music so supple, but lean. Singers more often associated with the “American” genre, Nora O’Connor and Kelly Hogan, couldn’t be better as supporting vocalists.

The songs that Staples and Tweedy have selected for You Are Not Alone come from tried and true sources like Staple’s father Roebuck, the gospel songwriter Alex Bradford, Jr. and the blues/gospel titan The Reverend Gary Davis. They also come from more contemporary writers like John Fogerty, Randy Newman, Allen Toussaint, and Tweedy himself. Staples is always at her best when she’s singing close to home. Her home turf is gospel, and unlike Sam Cooke and others who brought gospel feel to popular music, Staples has never really crossed over. While her sinewy blues feel makes the Lord’s work sexy, Staples isn’t a truly secular singer; her vision is always informed by a gospel-fueled righteousness, a sensibility that invariably returns to issues of equality, justice and compassion. Tweedy’s title song is perfect – steeped in gospel soul, but offering a new, poetic twist on the genre. John Fogerty’s “Wrote a Song for Everyone” isn’t overhauled so much as inhabited by Staples’; this is a song Staples feels deep in her bones. Only Toussaint’s “Last Train” sounds a trifled strained, the wacky Nawlins rhyming slang sounding just outside of Staples comfort zone.

You Are Not Alone is a tremendous addition to the distinguished career of the great Mavis Staples. Jeff Tweedy’s attuned, sympathetic production helps make it a durable listen. I’ve been putting this record on practically every day since its release. Believe me, it wears well. This is music that’s broken in, like an old leather jacket – tough, but comfortable.

Reverberating: 9.0

Owen Pallett at No. 13 in the continuing Top 25 for 2010 Countdown!

Welcome to the top 25 for 2010 Countdown! Each day we'll countdown, today we continue with number 14, culminating with our (okay, my) numero uno album of the year. When they're handy I'll borrow my earlier reviews from the KC Free Press, as I have in this case. 

I welcome all comments, criticisms, questions and dialog in general.

25. Jon Langford - Old Devils (Bloodshot)
24. Vaselines - Sex with an X (Sub Pop)
23. Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do (ATO)
22. Magnetic Fields - Realism (Nonesuch)
21. Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be (Sub Pop)
20. Peter Case - Wig! (Yep Roc) 

19. Bettye Lavette - Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook (Anti-Epitaph) 

18. Super Wild Horses - Fifteen (Hovac) 

17. Parting Gifts - Strychnine Dandelion (In the Red) 

16. No Age - Everything In Between (Sub Pop)

15. The Fall - Your Future Our Clutter (Domino) 

14. First Aid Kit - The Big Black and the Blue (Wichita Recordings) 

 

13. Owen Pallett - Heartland (Domino)

"Gifted Canadian musician composes an alienated song cycle for our age"

 

Owen Pallett has played or arranged strings for innumerable alternative stalwarts like The Arcade Fire, Beirut and Fucked Up. His solo work was previously released under the Final Fantasy moniker. For Heartland, his often-brilliant new record, he’s just Owen Pallett.


Fans of the artist can give you more background than I’m inclined to pursue or portray, from his sexuality to his Dungeons and Dragons obsession. Supposedly, his previous album He Poos Clouds practically required D & D familiarity to decode. I’m a grown man and I could give a rat’s ass. Fortunately, to enjoy the music on Heartland I don’t have to.

And enjoy it I do — despite the fact that Pallett courts everything I detest in the precious modern artiste. His arrangements are complex, sometimes to the point of fussiness. At times, as on the opening track “Midnight Directives," he buries a good melody under au courant layers of electro-percussive percolation. And his lyrics can court obscurity to unnerving degrees.

His best songs are brilliantly crafted, though, and at their most communicative and impassioned they can be uniquely moving. Pallett has skills; you know — like in “Napoleon Dynamite” — composing skills, arranging skills, violinist skills. On the best performances from Heartland he puts these skills to work in service to the songs. An extraordinary talent by pop, indie or any standards, the multi-layered musicality of his arrangements approaches the work of John Cale on Paris 1919, updated for a post-digital universe.

That’s not to say there’s much tech-overkill to Pallett’s palette. For the most part, these songs are carried by violin, viola, keyboards (acoustic and electronic) and percussion. And when he needs embellishment he calls upon the Czech Symphony Strings and the St. Kitts’ Wind Ensemble, giving many of these tracks a full (sometimes lush, sometimes strident) chamber sound.

The protagonist of Heartland’s narrative of a sort is a farmer named Lewis. He has a nemesis named Owen. Yeah, that Owen. It’s complicated, convoluted even, but taken individually the songs address personal and political conflict (“Keep the Dog Quiet”), identity and religious devotion (“Red Sun NO. 5”), youthful defiance (“Lewis Takes Off His Shirt”), and alienation (“E is for Estranged”). And they betray a probing young mind, unafraid of the big philosophical questions.

Pallett’s musical touchstones are several, sometimes in one song — “Oh Heartland, Up Yours” shares half a title with an X-Ray Spex song, a melodic curve with classic Todd Rundgren, and a bridge structured like Steely Dan. Modern serious music touches are everywhere too, especially on “The Great Elsewhere” with its Phillip Glass serial, repetitive themes.


Heartland reaches an emotional crescendo with “Lewis Take Off His Shirt,” a gorgeous string and keyboard swirl ornamenting the defiant “I’m never gonna give it to you” refrain. Lewis is both embodiment and messenger of Pallett’s prevailing dread, invoking a sense that under the surface of normalcy lurks malevolence.

Owen Pallett certainly isn’t afraid of musical complexity, but he’s no stranger to hooks either. Heartland’s songs have fetching melodies and Pallett doesn’t shy away from a catchy chorus if the song is enhanced by one, a refreshing thing indeed in an alterna-verse dominated by the hook averse.

Reverberating: 8.7 (original), upgraded to 8.9

First Aid Kit at No. 14 in the continuing Top 25 for 2010 Countdown!

Welcome to the top 25 for 2010 Countdown! Each day we'll countdown, today we continue with number 14, culminating with our (okay, my) numero uno album of the year. When they're handy I'll borrow my earlier reviews from the KC Free Press, as I have in this case. 

I welcome all comments, criticisms, questions and dialog in general.

25. Jon Langford - Old Devils (Bloodshot)
24. Vaselines - Sex with an X (Sub Pop)
23. Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do (ATO)
22. Magnetic Fields - Realism (Nonesuch)
21. Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be (Sub Pop)
20. Peter Case - Wig! (Yep Roc) 

19. Bettye Lavette - Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook (Anti-Epitaph) 

18. Super Wild Horses - Fifteen (Hovac) 

17. Parting Gifts - Strychnine Dandelion (In the Red) 

16. No Age - Everything In Between (Sub Pop)

15. The Fall - Your Future Our Clutter (Domino) 

14. First Aid Kit - The Big Black and the Blue (Wichita Recordings)

Beautiful sibling harmonies, elemental tunes, the sound of America … from Sweden”

Upon first impression, the Soderberg Sisters could have you believing they have lived hardscrabble lives in the American South. Nope, they are from a suburb of Stockholm. And they are all of seventeen (Klara) and twenty (Johanna), respectively. They call themselves First Aid Kit and on The Big Black and The Blue they demonstrate that great American music can come from anywhere. I suspect, too, that a certain wintry Nordic melancholy only enhances their songs of love and loss.

I’ve seen First Aid Kit compared to all of the leading lights of American nu-folk. Natural, I suppose, given the YouTube popularity of their version of Fleet Foxes’ “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song.” Listen carefully, though, and those Joanna Newsom comparisons seem a bit ridiculous. Johanna’s husky singing is closer to Neko Case and when she harmonizes with Klara’s more fragile voice their blend is uncannily like the Everly Brothers. There’s a break in their voices, too, when they reach for falsetto that is reminiscent of Kate & Anna McGarrigle. These are strong, iconic influences that the Soderberg’s reflect in stride.

Their songs tend toward slow to mid-tempo performances, and the lyrics (in English) vary wildly from the deeply poetic to the slightly contrived. But those harmonies always convey meaning that the words only suggest. When FAK spurns a Bible-thumping suitor in “Hard Believer” you get the idea that these young ladies aren’t God-fearing or afraid of much else. They do wrestle, unsuccessfully, with embracing the deity on “Heavy Storms” (“I wish I could believe in something bigger”).

Elemental themes (“Heavy Storms”) and strains of folk-fatalism (“I Met Up with the King’) abound, along with familiar lamentations on love. Sweden’s proximity to the sea suffuses the neo-bluegrass sounds (the close-to-yodeling ) of “Sailor Song.” And tidal imagery is central to the lovely “Waltz for Richard.” There’s a touch of Rubber Soul era Beatles on “Josefin,” which exemplifies the Sister’s ability to construct wonderful, rangy melodies over two or three chords.

Sung and played almost entirely by the Soderberg Sisters (a drummer, Charlie Smoliansky, appears on five tracks), The Big Black and The Blue could profit from an up-tempo track or two and the songwriting can be inconsistent. But their debut augurs well for First Aid Kit’s future. They already write and sing with maturity beyond their years. The Big Black and The Blue may only hint at what First Aid Kit will deliver down the road.

Reverberating: 8.0 (original), upgraded to 8.9