Archive for the ‘CLASSIC ALBUMS’ Category

NICK CAVE and the BAD SEEDS – ” Skeleton Tree ” Best Albums Of 2016

Posted: December 1, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Skeleton Tree

Though some of the music on Skeleton Tree predates the tragic death of Nick Cave’s 15-year-old son last year, that event inevitably hangs over and defines the album. Over eight songs, Cave crafts a harrowing, raw portrait of the span and directions of that kind of grief: There is the gaping dread of “Jesus Alone” and “Anthrocene,” there are somber meditations in “I Need You” and “Skeleton Tree,” occasionally gesturing at the possibility of hope. To call the album “haunting” almost minimizes it. There’s a gravity here beyond your average piece of pop music; even in a year as full of death as 2016, you can’t slot this into a narrative. Skeleton Tree is an intimate glimpse at an unimaginable chapter in a person’s life, made all the more powerful for its depiction of how they are trying to process it and continue living after the fact.

Some albums are hard to distance from the events surrounding them. With Skeleton Tree, it’s impossible to overlook the tragic death of Nick Cave’s son midway through the recording process.

It would be inaccurate to say that this is an album about 17-year-old Arthur, as most of it was written before he tragically fell from a cliff in Brighton, but it’s such a major event that it’s hard not to think about it through every note of these eight tracks. Cave’s work is dark and morbid at the best of times, and perhaps there’s an element of “seek and ye shall find” in finding prophecy in his latest work, but it’s particularly chilling that the first line of the album is “you fell from the sky”, and one of the last is “I called out right across the sky”.

The album is beautifully stripped-down and tender, with highlights including the funereal ‘Girl In Amber’, and the ghostly humming and scratchy drumming of ‘Anthrocene’. ‘I Need You’ perhaps hit me hardest of all the songs on the album, where Cave sounds a helpless, broken man as he repeats simple, almost childlike words like “nothing really matters” and “I’ll miss you when you’re gone”.

It’s an absolutely gripping and essential listen, if not always a comfortable one. For Cave to have finished this album at all is a huge credit to him. For him to channel his grief into possibly the best work I’ve ever heard from him is really something else.

JAPANESE BREAKFAST – ” Psychopomp ” Best Albums Of 2016

Posted: December 1, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Grief hangs over Psychopomp like a dark cloud, but as the year goes on, what stands out on Michelle Zauner’s debut full-length as Japanese Breakfast are the intense moments of euphoric happiness that play out on the sidelines: the joyous high of “Everybody Wants To Love You,” “Heft”‘s glorious fuck-you to the encroaching darkness, the resolute power in the album’s closing lines, “But in the night, I am someone else.” More than a depiction of loss, Psychopomp stands as a testament to finding your strongest self in situations of monumental sadness, taking comfort in the unpredictable and unknown

Soaring vocals and dreamy instrumentals, this album has so much heart. This band knows how to translate sugary pop, rock, and folksy music into a glowing, lofi dreamscape. There is a fun blend of hooky-ness and surreal, often amusing lyricism that keeps the whole album vibrant and exciting.

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Released April 1st, 2016

“at once cosmically huge and acutely personal, Zauner captures grief for the perversely intimate yet overwhelming pain it is. Long may she keep at this music thing.” -Pitchfork ,
“a stunning debut” -Rolling Stone
“overwhelmingly colorful and joyous; while her words betray grief and frustration, she turns the pain into power.” -NPR
“Psychopomp is exemplary, finding joy in sadness and despair in the brightest of lights…It’s an immaculately crafted debut, and you should listen” -Stereogum

JAY SOM – ” Turn Into “

Posted: December 1, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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What a solid record! Kind of like Liz Phair if she’d listened to more Shoegaze stuff. No bad cuts. Endearingly lo-fi but never cliche or trendy. Good songwriting too,  Warm and fuzzy vibes all over, Jay Som is as inviting as she is intimate with her music. Her San Franciscan alternative rock style is subtle, finding its strength in charming lo-fi sound and simple pleasures.

Melina Duterte performs under her moniker Jay Som back in July. At the time, she was out on tour with Mitski  and Japanese Breakfast, and she took the stage alone for a subdued set. When she passed through Seattle again in September, it was to open for Peter Bjorn and John, backed by a full band. Duterte’s quick ascent is a strong indication of both her talent and her growing importance to the West Coast music scene.

As Jay Som, her music covers almost every romantic notion imaginable, from sweet vignettes of a new relationship to heartbreak at the end of one. Her songs explore so much about human vulnerability that they might inspire you to spill a few secrets.

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All tracks composed, arranged, produced, and performed by Melina Duterte.

IAN SWEET – ” Slime Time Live “

Posted: December 1, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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bnb-iansweet

With the addition of drummer Tim Cheney and bassist Damien Scalise, Jilian Medford’s solo project Ian has evolved into the full band Ian Sweet. But it’s still Medford’s bruised, beating heart that lies at the center of Shapeshifters  twitchy tangles of guitar-rock, and it’s her voice we hear cracking into a strained yelp time again and again. Shapeshifter is a brutal album, an album about anxiety and self-destruction and giving yourself up for someone who only makes you feel more alone. But it’s also a hopeful album about going through the wringer and coming out on the other side with a smile.

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MANNEQUIN PUSSY – ” Romantic “

Posted: December 1, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Mannequin Pussy plays the hi-dive this week.

There’s not an album in recent memory that occupies a your head space with such clarity and potency. Mannequin Pussy’s Romantic is only 18 minutes in length but its a savage emotional whiplash, expressing the rapid-fire push and pull between external affection and internal anxiety through powerful ripcord hooks and a masterful blend of punk, pop, and hardcore that threatens to fall apart at every turn. The Philadelphia band has crafted the perfect album to put on when the voices in your head get to be overwhelming, one to turn to when those fleeting, intense moments of despair and uncertainty feel like they may never go away.

Its just brutal in a really endearing way. The band`s voice hooked me from the start. They have got an impressive range from gentle rock that showcase melodies to fast-paced, angry, angsty songs without any words at all.

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CRYING – ” Beyond the Fleeting Gales ” Best Albums Of 2016

Posted: December 1, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Crying take two deeply uncool genres of music — video game music and ’80s arena-rock — and play them both like they’re the coolest thing in the world. And they do it with enough conviction to convert even the most hardened cynic. There’s no trace of irony or pretension to be found on Beyond The Fleeting Gales, just an explosion of riffage lifted to the heavens by Elaiza Santos’ sugar-sweet vocal melodies. It’s like injecting pure fun directly into your ear canals, a welcome beacon of optimism in a decidedly dark time

This album is just full of Simply wonderful. Infectious, fun, yet introspective at the same time. There’s something amazing when combining Crying’s powerful music with the calm vocal delivery. Very unique. It’s so amazing! The poppy, yet relaxing sound, mixed with upbeat and exciting melodies/drum beats. I love the energy and happiness of this album. Wool in the Wash is so relaxing, but There Was a Door is just so interesting? I haven’t heard music like this since that created in the 80s

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LYDIA LOVELESS – ” Real “

Posted: December 1, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Singer-songwriter Lydia Loveless’ highly anticipated new album, “Real”, was released in August via BloodshotRecords. This record follows the release of Somewhere Else, which Rolling Stone praised as “…an aching, lusty set of twang and sneer wrapped in electric guitar swagger,” while Pitchfork furthered “Somewhere Else [is] both a bracing and a deeply harrowing listen.”

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Lydia Loveless has never been catchier, funnier, smarter, or more of an emotional powerhouse than on this album of hearty roots-rock songs that helped her decide to keep living. The dopey “Midwestern Guys” of her Columbus home base share head space with a passionate romance in “Bilbao,” and “your shitty Indianapolis band” adds to mental noise both metaphysical (“Heaven,” where no one goes) and heartrendingly personal (“Longer,” on which Loveless grapples with a close friend’s death). And then there’s “Out On Love,” secretly the greatest ballad of the year and not so secretly the most radical stylistic departure of her career. Hopefully it proves to be a launchpad for many more.

The SO SO GLOS – ” Kamikaze “

Posted: December 1, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Track By Track: Brooklyn Punks The So So Glos Run Us Through Their Blistering New Record

Brooklyn’s The So So Glos released their third LP Kamikaze There’s some talent behind this one too, being recorded by John Reis (Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes) and mixed by Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Rilo Kiley and Cursive).

The record is a slab of hard hitting NYC styled punk rock, drawing clear influence from and pays tribute to America’s greatest punk bands from The Ramones to Black Flag.
The Band led us through a track by track explanation of the albums songs.

DANCING INDUSTRY
This one is a call to action. Calling kids of all ages, come out, come out wherever you are. Come from behind your screens and on to the dance floor. Lets build a new army of empathic, peace seeking individuals. Lets churn out this feeling in an “assembly line” like fashion. This ain’t a party that we’re starting, it’s a movement that we’re blowing up. This song was written the day after we finished recording our previous album, Blowout. It’s the first track on the record, and the first words you hear are “BLOWN OUT”. It picks up right where we left off. The saga continues….

A.D.D. LIFE
There’s too much information and we’re all having trouble concentrating. We’ve got an entire generation with A.D.D. in a world that’s constantly connected but still isolated. This was also written a few days after the completion of Blowout and I was listening to a lot of Fiona Apple at the time.

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GOING OUT SWINGIN’
This is a self-destructive “going out” party anthem. It’s an equally empowering & self-deprecating feeling. The use of the word swinging is a quadruple entendre. Going out swinging: either sexually swinging, or swinging a baseball bat (playing for the losing team), swinging from a noose, or swing dancing on the dance-floor. If you listen closely, you can hear Broadway’s own Danny Miller playing the cello over the requiem outro. Alex recorded the strings with Danny in a little apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

DEVILS DOING HANDSTANDS
The hangover from last night’s party. The protagonist here has a momentary sense of clarity and is fully aware of the spiritual journey he is on. At this point in the record, we’re looking back at mistakes of the past and saying “next time around, I’ll do handstands on the ground” to change my state of mind. This one is for an optimist who see’s through a pessimistic lens. An ode to reincarnation.

MAGAZINE
It’s an attempt to dispel the myth that on the cover of magazines girls must stay lean and boys must stay mean. This is another call to action by the protagonist who’s intentions are to burn down the beliefs that fuel the structural institutions which perpetuate the stereotypes between us & marginalize communities of people based on gender, race, class, you name it…

SUNNY SIDE
Heartbreak opens the floodgates to climatic variation. It’s nothing new under the sun, but this is sarcastic one. This song came out when a hurricane hit Brooklyn and the power went out over Manhattan for a week. I wrote this song in a plastic bag.

KINGS COUNTY II BALLAD OF A SO SO GLO
In this song we’re talking about the self-obsessed culture in which we live. This is the story of two So So Glos lost in a world of celebrated narcissism.

A So So Glo is defined as: 1. A postmodern egotist whose devotion to themselves supersedes any moral, social or political cause (this can also be used as an empowering term for someone who works to combat this type of behavior). 2. The Glo that is emitted from a portable information device such as a phone tablet or computer.

FOOL ON THE STREET
A fool on the street who refuses to play the game. The fool witnesses people rising to power and takes note of the moral compromises that are made to make it to the top. The fool harbours feelings of disillusionment, directed toward the ones we put on a pedestal. This was written underground. I think it means absolute power corrupts absolutely, and all that jazz.

CADAVER
The feeling you get at the end of your rope. Our hero is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, shooting off at the mouth. This is a character who truly is beyond caring what people think. This song evolved out of an idea that we’d been kicking around for a little while but it wasn’t written until the day before we recorded it.

INPATIENT
A glimpse into a stay at an inpatient mental rehabilitation center. Protagonist is institutionalized and removed from society. Lyrics on this one by Matt.

DOWN THE TUBES
Using Kamikaze as a metaphor for taking someone in a human relationship down with you because of all that they’ve done. This one is also a comment on violence. It’s an ANTI violence song that plays with narrative prospective

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MISSIONARY
The feeling you get when you’re on a mission and you need to shout it out loud at the whole wide world. This particular mission is guided by peace, love and punk rock ethics. Picture a missionary using an extreme of explosive proportion to get though to the kids who need it. John Reis can be heard chanting along with the gang on the outro.

DRIVE BY TRUCKERS – ” What It Means “

Posted: December 1, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, WE LOVE
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American Band is not a bashful album. As a collection of songs, it’s not quite as effective as say Southern Rock Opera or even The Dirty South. But as a political statement, it’s easily the most emphatic work by the band Drive By Truckers. “What It Means” takes a subdued approach to the subject of African-Americans killed at the hands of police (or, in the case of Martin, a vigilante cop-wannabe). “Darkened Flags on the Cusp of Dawn” is the brawny flipside, full of the growling, intertwined guitars that have become something of a Truckers signature over the years. Singer Patterson Hood mostly handles the downhearted tunes, singing from the perspective of a military veteran wounded as a civilian by an act of domestic terrorism on the moody “Guns of Umpqua,” sighing in the gloom over a gentle piano phrase on “When the Sun Don’t Shine” and parsing his own struggles with depression on “Baggage,” written after Robin Williams committed suicide. Although the songs on American Band are arguably not the band’s catchiest, it’s a body of work that is starting to feel increasingly essential as the American political landscape gets more and more surreal

 

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HONEYBLOOD – ” Super Rat “

Posted: December 1, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Honeyblood tickets

The two-piece Glasgow based band may be small in number but mighty in talent, uniting drummer Cat Myers with guitarist Stina Marie Claire Tweedale who both share vocals. The lofi band have quickly emerged as a force to be reckoned with playing fantastic gigs around the world and benefitting from prominent airplay. Honeyblood take their name from a recipe for fake blood used by Tweedale for a Halloween gig that she gargled and spat upon her attending audience.

Originally, the band’s line-up included Edinburgh girl Tweedale and drummer Shona McVicar from Cumbernauld who intended to recruit additional members but quickly began gigging after they formed in 2012 and realised that they didn’t need anyone else. They released their demo tape entitled Thrift Shop the same year.
The duo’s charisma and excellent song writing was apparent from the outset and they attracted the interest of FatCat Records by their second gig and were soon signed to the label.

They began work on their debut album in Connecticut in the United States during November of 2013 to work with producer Peter Katis, taking only ten days to complete the recording. Their eponymously titled debut album was released the following year. A year that also saw the departure of McVicar to be quickly replaced by Cat Myers.

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