“Ruthy” of course will always make me think of the comic strip, One Big Happy. I also enjoy the cover art. The music? Yeah, it’s good, too.
“End of Time” continues the legacy Fleetwood Mac had left us with. Here’s the modern record you get Mom for her birthday so she can feel hip, instead of feeling her arthritic hip. She’ll thank you on your wedding night.
“Rise” is half ’80s and half country. There’s no better word to describe the sound than “distinct.” “As My Eyes Run Wild” is a simpler number and clearly more country than rock. They’ve got a ton of honk in their tonk. This is also prevalent in “Who’s Who.”
If you’re looking for something with a little less twang, give the title track a shot. It’s not a longshot that you will like it.
Archive for the ‘Music reviews’ Category
Mike and Ruthy “Million to One”
August 28, 2010Colleen and Paul “Colleen and Paul”
August 28, 2010Maybe it’s the Diet Mtn. Dew talking, but this record has me yelling, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” as if I were a volleyball player. Jenny and Johnny, Matt and Kim, She & Him, and Colleen and Paul. They all do their parts to make compound-complex sentences even harder to copyedit. And of course, it’s more fire for the ampersand debate as well.
Those acts all sound the same, too, which is fine by me. Go on with your bad selves. I want more of this male-female duet stuff. “Please Be Kind” is one of the better tracks, although all are noteworthy. I also like “You’re My Globe.” If Pee-Wee’s Playhouse were still around, I bet Colleen and Paul could be special guests, and they could sing this one to Globey. “TV Summer” makes a reference to TV Guide, so you know I’m all over that.
Carissa’s Wierd “They’ll Only Miss You When You Leave: Songs 1996-2003”
August 21, 2010That’s like naming a band “Doug’s Rael Obnoxious.”
I had really high expectations for this one, and that’s never good. This is an act I somehow missed in my heyday, but when I saw this look back at their apparent greatest times and accolades, I saw it as a chance to finally get to know Carissa’s Wierd. Better late than never, right?
I regret not knowing of these guys when they existed. I would have seen them live at least twice. And it does not surprise me that they spent several years in Portland. And they had a woman who did nothing but play violin. I missed out.
The music itself is like a dark Suddenly, Tammy! Although Carissa’s Weird does not set out to be overly dirty, it’s pretty clear from the get-go that this is a band that knows that rocking means sitting in a van for nine hours, subsisting on little more than Fun Dip. How I can tell this by listening to the record is complicated, but it has a lot to do with song titles such as “The Color That Your Eyes Chaned With the Color of Your Hair” and “So You Wanna Be a Superhero.”
I can tell “One Night Stand” is one of their landmark songs. I’ll play along with that. “Drunk With the Only Saints I Know” is another winner.
My favorite track is “Blessed Arms That Hold You Tight, Freezing Cold and Alone.” It’s a little dramatic, I know, but that was the style at the time.
I would have enjoyed these guys, but they are more of an exhibit of the era than an exemplary representative.
Autolux “Transit Transit”
August 12, 2010Yeah, I can get behind this stuff. It reminds me of Primitive Radio Gods. It’s lightweight, poppy music with occasional nods to samples and grunge. Perry Farrell would be proud.
You can count on tracks such as “Census” to drive the point home. I also enjoy “Highchair.” But “Supertoys” is super rad. All the members do all the singing, so I suppose you find the one with the member you like and root for that.
“Headless Sky” is the best of the male-led tracks. The tracks here all remind you of mid-90s stars, whether it’s Flaming Lips or Pavement. There’s not much to say, because I’m sick of making Melrose Place references, but this one will be enjoyed by Generation Xers and today’s teens who think it’s cool to listen to the music their uncles and aunts like.
Dirty Little Rabbits “Dirty Little Rabbits”
August 8, 2010There’s no mistaking it: This is a rock band. They probably play in smoky bars, and all the guys hoot and holler and say suggestive things to the lead singer that they’d never say if they weren’t drunk.
The resurgence of the female-dominated band is about complete. We’re right back to where we were in the Pat Benatar era 30 years ago and the Lilith Fair era 15 years ago. The wheat is starting to come with a little chaff attached, so enjoy it while you can. The Creed reunion tour can’t be far off, now.
So the album itself? It tries a little too hard. Sometimes it’s Picture Me Broken (“Simon”), other times Evanescence (“You Say”) and even still other times Bjork and Rush simultaneously (“Put It in the Rock”). And you know what? That’s just the first three tracks. Why listen to a compilation when you can have one band do the dirty work for you?
If the lead singer would calm down and just sing, something she surely can do but perhaps does not have the confidence to do yet, she could sound like Beth Sorrentino. I will wait.
“I Love You” is good for Leah Andreone fans. The song itself? It’s all right; it’s okay. “If” slows it down. I bet the band doesn’t want to do ballads, but they do them well. Nobody ever wants to do what people want them to do. “The Didn’ts” is a bit frenetic. It’s a guarantee they play this one live.
I don’t know what the band is trying to do on this record, but there’s one thing for certain. They’ve done something!
Morcheeba “Blood Like Lemonade”
August 4, 2010After being gone for almost as long as they had been together, Morcheeba are back to see whether they’re still relevant. They may not make any new fans, but their old ones should be mighty chuffed that the band is having another go at it.
This record reminds me of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ “The Rapture.” It’s just a little too happy to really be them. And as sure as we were happy to hear “O Baby” then, we’re happy to hear “Even Though” now. And we can perhaps revel in their happiness, because 15 years is a long time to be depressed anyway. Hopefully they can give the members of Portishead a call to see whether they can be brought out of their funk as well.
“Mandala” is a nice interlude, complete with some classic samples. It’s the most true-to-the-original of the tracks. A pity that it’s less than three minutes long. Other tracks show the band’s evolution. “I Am the Spring” doesn’t even have percussion. It sounds like a Tracey Thorn track.
“Cut to the Bass” is another winner. It has the old sound but still has an original feel to it. This is what it’s all about. “Beat of the Drum” is a good one to take a nap to. Listening to Morcheeba always puts me in a special place.
Spouse “Confidence”
August 3, 2010Very friendly power pop here. “No Sudden Moves” is the first track and sounds like something Tally Hall might do. I really like this. “What You’re Feeling” introduces a keyboard as well. You can’t help but smile. What a fun bunch of guys.
“Impressed by You” is the best of the best, however. It’s an easy-to-understand love story of a song and one I can relate to personally. Dinosaur Jr fans will especially like this because of the guitar work. “59” is in Spanish, which is nice. Underwater has the same chords or bassline or something as “Glycerine” by Bush.
Not much else to say. The album is so seriously good that I don’t want to make my usual assortment of ridiculous puns.
Fading Collection “Attakk”
August 1, 2010It’s an EP. “March Rabbits” is first and has a late ’90s feel. This was the direction Republica and Sister Soleil tried to take modern rock, but it did not stick because everyone wanted to listen to fucking Creed. Their loss. “The Real Rotator” is slightly more industrial. Slightly. “Antlering” reminds me of God Lives Underwater, only with a woman singing. It’s a little too slow for my liking, but it’s still worth a listen. Everything here is. This is the stuff I would listen to after work on my way home from the bar. It’s impossible to fall asleep at the wheel when this kind of music is blaring from your AM/FM cassette deck.
“Broken Teeth” does the start and stop tempo that the original Beatmania songs made famous. The backing vocals on the chorus seem a bit misplaced, though. “Five Forests” is the fifth track. Who knows what that means. It is also the last track and the longest. One of the things that firmly implants this record in the Monica Lewinsky scandal is that, even though the tracks are all mainstream danceable for the era, the tracks are mostly 3-4 minutes long. That was the style at the time!
This won’t be my favorite album of 2010, but it will be right there with the honorable mentions.
Cowboy Junkies “Renmin Park”
July 25, 2010You know what you’re getting with Cowboy Junkies. They are releasing four albums the way that the second and third “Back to the Future” movies were released: every six months. This one is the first one, and I hope we get the other three (and that I get to review them so I can have the set).
Renmin Park is an actual park in Jingjiang, China, near where some/all/I-don’t-know of the band lived for a few months. It apparently serves as the inspiration for this record. If you want to hear some Chinese samples, then play “Sir Francis Bacon at the Net” or “(You’ve Got to Get) a Good Heart,” a song that betrays any chance people think this band is new. Very clear 1990 Big Audio Dynamite/The Farm sound on that one. And of course it’s awesome. Just listening to this one makes me want to refuse broccoli. “A Walk in the Park” is a cover, which means it’s in Chinese. It’s impressive to see them go out on a limb like this. Hey, Cowboy Junkies have their money and don’t give a fuck what you think. They’re going to do what they want. Good thing it does not suck.
There are more, what you could call traditional, tracks on this record. The title track is a notable example of this. “Stranger Here” sounds like Fiery Furnaces, although clearly it makes more sense to say Fiery Furnaces sound like Cowboy Junkies.
The random tracks with Chinese influence keep the record from sounding like all the rest of their efforts, but it’s not enough of a departure to give the impression of an identity crisis. Truly the best of both worlds.
Peggy Sue “Fossils and Other Phantoms”
July 13, 2010They’re British, but you can’t really tell. But they are. It’s three dames, of which two sing a lot, while the other mostly drums, although I bet they hook up a mic, and every now and then she sings stuff while trying to drum. I can imagine the talent level being high enough to support that.
“Yo Mama” is an example of their great song titles. They also have “Long Division Blues” and “The Remainder.”
I would love to have tea with these women, because what we really need in our society are more perpetuated stereotypes. The record itself? It’s pretty good. The harmonies do it for me, of course, and the music seems to be intentionally sleepy, the way that Rose Melberg’s stuff is.
“Careless Talk Costs Lives” reminds me of Bitch and Animal. This one is quite the shit, really.
It’s a short review, for me, but I did enjoy this album. Another success for Yep Roc!
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