Archive for the ‘CLASSIC ALBUMS’ Category

TOM PETTY – ” Live At The Fillmore (San Francisco Serenades) ” (3Cd) Box set

Posted: January 2, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Live Broadcast Recording from Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker’s classic FILLMORE shows during the early 1990s they d been on a hiatus of sorts, but by 1995 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had fully reunited to coincide with the release of their six CD Playback box set. After an extended tour, the band spent much of 1996 writing and recording the soundtrack album Songs And Music From “She’s The One”. While not one of their most successful records, it still produced three Top 20 hits while featuring appearances from Lindsey Buckingham, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and Carl Wilson. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers began 1997 with a staggering 20-date residency at The Fillmore in San Francisco, which ran from 10th January to 7th February. The final date of this extended run was deemed, in most quarters, one of the finest shows the group had ever performed, and was luckily recorded for live FM broadcast. Now included in its entirety on this triple CD box set for the first time, the show features a mix of hits, rarities and covers – including numbers originally by The Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, Van Morrison, Booker T. And The MGs and a host of others – and includes too a guest appearance from blues legend John Lee Hooker, who joins the band as lead vocalist for three of his own songs.

KING GIZZARD and the LIZARD WIZARD – ” Gumboot Soup “

Posted: January 2, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Fifth album of 2017 and it’s still this amazing. These songs were too good for the albums they were supposed to be on so instead we get a singles collection.

To many it may seem like an impossible task, but for King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, the notion of releasing five albums in a year is not beyond the realm of possibility. In fact, while some were doubting the band’s plan would come to fruition, the group left it until the last day of the year to prove the doubters wrong, releasing Gumboot Soup overnight.

Following the four albums released this year, including Microtonal Banana, Murder Of The Universe, Sketches Of Brunswick East, and Polygondwanaland, the band had already released a major stack of music,

FINDLAY – ” Forgotten Pleasures “

Posted: January 1, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Natalie Rose Findlay’s band Findlay have been releasing EPs and gigging around the UK and Europe for three years or so, but only launched their debut album Forgotten Pleasures in February this year (with a free gig at Hackney’s Moth Club). London-based Natalie (originally from Stockport) is a brilliant singer and live performer (cleverly using two microphones with different EQ and effects on each) and I suppose you’d describe the music broadly as indie-pop although Natalie clearly has a great record collection and is influenced by classic ’70a artists like David Bowie and T.Rex. Indeed, early song Your Sister (which didn’t make the album) is a clear tip-of-the-hat to Jean Genie. Back to the album though, Waste My Time is brilliant, with a cool EDM-style intro and a very strong hooky chorus, while Greasy Love has a wild, passionate distorted vocal and is a stompy tour-force.

Monomania (which like Waste My Time was a single) is a piano-driven track and has a very soulful chorus line (of “Nobody Loves You Like I Do“) and Sunday Morning In The Afternoon is a suitably spaced out comedown track. Choosing to be in a small but tight band – guitar/bass/drums and occasional keyboard – and not a solo artist is a harder gig these days and while Findlay are constantly touring around Europe, it’s a shame that this fine record doesn’t appear to have connected with a wider audience.

GABRIELLE PAPILLON – ” Keep The Fire “

Posted: January 1, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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This is the fourth album from Canadian singer-songwriter Gabrielle Papillon. Less than two months ago I knew nothing about her, I guess it shows the age old power of great songs, beautifully sung and thoughtfully arranged, that makes you transfixed whilst listening to this album.  Keep The Fire was officially released in October 2017,  It’s a fantastic listen. It’s a deeply moving, intimate record but Papillon doesn’t forget her craft by neglecting melody, structure and choruses. These are accessible pop songs but there’s always appears to be an undertow of heartbreak, accentuated by the superb string arrangements. This collection of songs will surely connect to anyone who is struggling or has loved and lost, or has dealt with bereavement, although thankfully not required for enjoyment! The band is brilliant, and the arrangements are always empathetic to the songwriting – Jordi Comstock’s drumming in particular stands out

Papillon is a great lyricist and there’s some brilliant turns of phrases in virtually every song. There really isn’t a weak song on the 11-track album (opener Overture For The Fire Keeper is an instrumental). The piano-led Hold On, I Will I – which is surely destined to soundtrack a tragic/emotional scene in a major film –  spends nearly three minutes building up to very satisfying resolution. I love reissues and box sets but this was a visceral reminder of how powerful and affecting great new music can be. Trust me. Buy this record. You won’t be disappointed.

Sinkane – ” Life & Livin’ It “

Posted: January 1, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Sinkane music — every note of it — comes straight out of a generosity of spirit. Never has that spirit been on more vivid display than on the uplifting new album Life & Livin’ It. This is feel-good music for trying times, celebrating what makes life good without ignoring what makes it hard. The stylistic ground covered in this album ranges from Afro-beat to Shoegaze to Jazz to Synth-pop, yet it flows smoothly throughout to create a wonderfully cohesive whole.

By the time they finished touring for their acclaimed Mean Love album in late 2015, Ahmed Gallab and the band had spread the gospel of Sinkane to the world, playing 166 shows in 20 countries. During the same period, he had also led The Atomic Bomb Band — the highly celebrated 15-piece outfit that played the music of elusive Nigerian electro-funk maestro William Onyeabor. The band included David Byrne, Damon Albarn, members of Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture, Jamie Lidell and legendary jazz musicians Pharoah Sanders and Charles Lloyd, and they played all over the planet, including making their TV debut on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. “Those 14 months really changed my life,” Ahmed says. “Not only did I learn how to put on a bigger show, but all that touring brought Sinkane closer as a band.”

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How a record with these poppy, infectious hooks doesn’t make it into the charts is among the clearest evidence that the music industry is totally run by marketers and not music-lovers. Begun as the solo work of Ahmed Gallab (Born in London to Sudanese parents, who moved to the US when Ahmed was 5), Life & Livin’ It is perhaps the development of Sinkane into a more democratic band.

MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA – ” A Black Mile to the Surface “

Posted: January 1, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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It’s just as well then that while A Black Mile to the Surface certainly feels like one of the band’s most expansive, and ultimately uplifting, records, it still harbours the undercurrent of darkness and unease that’s an inherent part of Manchester Orchestra. And with tracks like “The Sunshine” blossoming with an understated optimism, the record’s afforded an emotional balance unseen on previous albums, suggesting a further evolution for a band who refuse to rest on their laurels.

Such is their inability to settle in to a groove, that A Black Mile to the Surface is the product of the band’s writing and recording process being turned completely on its head, purposefully pushing themselves to second guess each decision in a bid to create “an album in a ‘non-Manchester’ way”. As a result, the record feels far more cinematic than anything they’ve released before; the influence of singer/guitarist Andy Hull and co-writer/multi-instrumentalist Robert McDowell’s work on 2016 Sundance film Swiss Army Man evident in the hypnotic ebb and flow of “The Mistake”, or in the finger-picked throb of “The Moth”.

Such a grandiose aesthetic is helped here through the production efforts of John Congleton (Explosions In the Sky) and Catherine Marks (The Killers); the two establishing an equilibrium between the elaborate soundscapes of the former, and the bombast of the latter. Rather than fall in to self-indulgence however, A Black Mile to the Surface feels richly nuanced, offering up something new on every repeat listen.

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And you will want to play it again. Probably as soon as you’ve heard it the first time. From the emotive resplendence of opening track “The Maze”, a subtly building opener that gently coaxes listeners in, to the tribal thump of the seven-minute epic “The Silence” that plays the record out, every aspect of A Black Mile to the Surface is ambitious and rarely, if ever, does it falter. And though they’ve certainly succeeded in their goal of making an album in a ‘non-Manchester’ way, it fits perfectly in their Manchester Orchestra canon as a stunning evolution of a band who aren’t afraid to test themselves.

GORD DOWNIE – ” Introduce Yerself “

Posted: January 1, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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To folks south of the border  Canada’s the Tragically Hip might’ve seemed little more than R.E.M. manqué folk-rockers with Gordon Lightfoot/Robbie Robertson/Stan Rogers storytelling proclivities. Up north, of course, they’d grown over 30-plus years into Canuck culture icons, and with frontman Gord Downie’s recent death from brain cancer at age 53, the tragedy of this rough-hewn, meditative, personal parting shot – produced in collaboration with Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew is that it spotlights a master talent just as the door closed behind him.

A life flashes before a man’s eyes, wistful scenes of winter landscapes and indie rock memories. Over brooding piano and a churning groove, “My First Girlfriend” rhapsodizes about a bookish older gal who opened his mind and (literally) saved his life; “Snowflake” isolates a quintessential Canadian image, matter-of-factly wresting it back from right-wing pundits. The title track is a simple, deeply touching story of a tattoo, a thank-you to the person who inspired it, revealing a spirit who devoted his life to connecting. He’s gone now, but look: He’s still doing it.

SERA CAHOONE – ” Deer Creek Canyon “

Posted: January 1, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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For more than a decade, singer-songwriter Sera Cahoone has specialized in a shy, introverted kind of folk music: She started her career at the back of the stage, playing drums for Carissa’s Wierd and Band Of Horses, and the solo songs that followed reflected the gently unassuming nature of a singer who couldn’t showboat in the spotlight if she tried. Instead, Cahoone’s first three records — a self-titled 2006 debut, 2008’s Only As The Day Is Long and 2012’s Deer Creek Canyon, all great — settle in as front-porch comfort music, with a lyrical and sonic emphasis on soothing the listener’s aches and woes.

But on new album From Where I Started, Cahoone’s first album in five years, something’s different, and it’s clear in the first words of the opening track. “First years I ever played my, my songs for anyone / My back was toward them and I sang down to the ground. / Got so tired of being nervous that I finally turned around.” That song, “Always Turn Around,” marks the beginning of a clear shift toward putting more of herself into each warm bit of storytelling.

Thankfully, Cahoone has lost none of her easygoing approachability along the way; her songs still amble sweetly and gently, propelled by a voice that radiates kindness. But, starting with “Always Turn Around,” From Where I Started tackles personal realities in ways its predecessors generally didn’t. In “Ladybug,” she pays empathetic, finely detailed tribute to a cousin killed by a domestic partner — “All the signs were right there / We just couldn’t believe” — while “Up To Me” offers a bracingly grown-up take on lifetime love. (“I wanna be your lover / Like no other / But it’s not really up to me.”)

Still, Cahoone remains fascinated with contentment, and From Where I Started closes by painting a picture of domestic bliss undisturbed by the constant churn of the world around it. In “House Our Own,” amid a sweet haze of slide guitars, she examines and celebrates the way the right relationship can redefine our concept of home. For all the album’s detours into tragedy and self-doubt, it’s natural that Sera Cahoone would close the proceedings where her solo career started: in the pursuit of freedom from the prison of a worried mind.

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FILTHY FRIENDS – ” Invitation “

Posted: January 1, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Filthy Friends is the sound of music being made free of expectations, free of fear for how it will be received, free of any and all bullshit that has become lingua franca of the modern music industry. Filthy Friends is the product of like minded individuals with nothing to prove getting together and making a heroic racket together that finds space for their many influences and interests.

The band is lucky in that regard. Their legacies in the music world are comfortably secured. Lead singer Corin Tucker has left an indelible mark on the punk scene through her memberships in Sleater-Kinney and Heavens to Betsy. Guitarist Kurt Bloch has logged a lot of hours as the leader of The Fastbacks, as well as serving as a producer/mentor for up and coming Seattle rock groups. Drummer Bill Rieflin has a fine day job as one of the drummers in King Crimson. Bassist Scott McCaughey keeps plenty busy doing studio work and mining the power pop underground with his long-running band the Young Fresh Fellows. As for the other guitarist Peter Buck…if you’re unfamiliar with him, you haven’t been paying attention to the last 30 years of alternative/college/indie rock. (He used to be in R.E.M.)

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LO TOM – ” Lo Tom “

Posted: January 1, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Lo Tom: <i>Lo Tom</i> Review

Any time musicians from existing bands get together to form a new musical entity, it’s not an uncommon occurrence  especially in indie rock circles for the term “super group” to incorrectly be used interchangeably with the less glamorous (yet oftentimes more accurate) term “side project.” However, in the case of Lo Tom, the acclaimed distinction is unquestionably in order.

The band is comprised of indie veterans David Bazan (Pedro the Lion, Headphones) on vocals and bass, Jason Martin (Starflyer 59, Bon Voyage) on guitar, TW Walsh (The Soft Drugs, Pedro the Lion) on guitar and background vocals and Trey Many (Velour 100, Starflyer 59) on drums. Their eight-song self-titled debut captures the sound of four friends (and frequent bandmates) using the collective skills of their shared trade as the ruse to hang out and have a little fun over two weekends of recording sessions. While the “let’s just get together, press record and see what happens” Lo Tom proves that in the right hands, it can produce pure musical magic.

With a melodic pedigree that’s rooted in  guitar-heavy, alt-rock-fueled ‘90s and also shaped by the glossed-up, genre-shifting ‘00s, Lo Tom encompasses a surprisingly modern sound that simultaneously flirts with and fights against its own nostalgia. The fuzzed-out Martin/Walsh guitar riffs on songs like “Covered Wagon” and “Overboard” wouldn’t be out of place on any of the band members’ previous albums, but Bazan’s pop-infused sing-along choruses and Many’s crisp-yet-understated drumming keep either song from veering into clichéd throwback territory.

In the same vein, the stabbing rhythms, reverb-ed vocals, and politically-shaded opening lyrics of “Another Mistake” recall some of the more aggressive elements inherent in the musical unrest of the early ‘00s, but the inventive guitar chord voicings over the chorus bring the song fully forward into new sonic territories. Bazan’s unintentionally tongue-in-cheek closing vocal flub provides a clever meta moment to the song as well.

Overflowing with a confidently relaxed cool and an absolute lack of pretense , Lo Tom’s debut somehow feels both enthusiastically self-assured and deceptively effortless . That comfortable ease with which the band unfolds their slinky guitar-and-drum interplay on “Find the Shrine” the perfect splash of drunken swagger to “Bubblegum” is a testament not only to each member’s multi-decade commitment to their own craft.

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Perhaps the best distillation of Lo Tom’s hard-earned ethos can be found in the lyrics of album closer “Lower Down” when Bazan’s gravelly croons espouses, “Man, you don’t need to chase the sound if it comes from lower down.” Potentially off-putting from the mouth of a greener musician, the line is charming, believable and wholly fitting in the context of this seasoned band of artistically adventurous brothers.

Lo Tom is:
D Bazan – Bass, vox
T Many – Drums
J Martin – Guitar
TW Walsh – Guitar, BGV

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