Rae’s debut album ‘Unguarded’ is out 26.01.2015, This Blackpool singer songwriter and pianist has been attracting listeners for over a year and a half with her singles and guest appearances with Bombay Bicycle Club and Clean Bandit and now with producer Ariel Rechtshald, Morris has fashioned a lush sounding debut, with songs of yearning and intimacy, her songs of lust and heartache make for an amazing debut
Humble Pie were introduced to the UK audience as a supergroup with a big hit single, but further down the line they would become album rock and concert favourites in America. ‘Natural Born Bugie,’ a No. 4 hit in their own country in the summer of 1969, proved to be their only hit there, and by the early 1970s they were undeniably bigger across the Atlantic. But this week in 1972, they nudged back into the British charts with a very notable live double album that brought them a gold record in the States, ‘Performance – Rockin’ The Fillmore.’
“I’ve got a new axe, it’s too much! It’s going to make me rock on, man!” were the words of Steve Marriott as the band took the stage. The record captures the classic Humble Pie line-up of Marriott, Peter Frampton, Greg Ridley and Jerry Shirley in a classic rock ‘n’ roll setting, and just in the nick of time, too: but by the time it was released, Frampton had left to start his solo career.
The band’s shows on May 28 and 29, 1971 were taped for the album at the venue in New York’s East Village neighbourhood, only a month before the Fillmore East closed its doors. The gigs followed their US chart debut that very month with ‘Rock On,’ which only reached No. 118, but enjoyed a 23-week stay on the album chart, demonstrating the popularity they were earning with American fans.
The ‘Fillmore’ disc featured only seven tracks across its four sides, including epic versions of Dr. John’s ‘I Walk On Gilded Splinters’ (23 minutes) and the Muddy Waters song that had named a certain fellow English band, ‘Rollin’ Stone’ (16 minutes). The latter had been on the ‘Rock On’ album in a relatively modest six-minute version, and the band also included their own ‘Stone Cold Fever’ from that LP in the Fillmore set.
The live LP also included such covers as Ray Charles’ ‘Hallelujah I Love Her So’ and the Ashford & Simpson soul song ‘I Don’t Need No Doctor,’ which managed an eight-week run on the USA Charts.
When ‘Rockin’ The Fillmore’ made its UK chart debut in January 1972, George Harrison’s ‘Concert For Bangla Desh’ hit the chart the same week, as T. Rex fever continued, with ‘Electric Warrior’ which was the top selling album
Sundowners have the kudos of the patronage of The Coral, whose leader James Skelly is on the co-production duties . Keeping it in the family, he’s also the brother of guitarist Alfie and singer Fiona Skelly, who shares the vocal duties in the band with Niamh Rowe. The story isn’t about mentors they’re walking a similarly retro but much poppier path than their older brothers band.
“Wild As The Season” comes on like “The Age of Aquarius” by The 5th Dimension. Opening with a brooding splash of tambourine, bass and a squall of guitar chords that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Nuggets compilation, it then smacks you around the face with some mighty harmonies. If the sign of a great opening song is that you press repeat as soon as it’s finished and then do that again several times, then this ticks the box.
“Back To You” starts off like New Order and the vocal harmonies have a woozy claustrophobia about them, pitched deliberately low in the mix to match the swampy guitars.
Recent single “Into The Light” is the best thing here, a heady west coast breeze, revolving around a frenetic 12 string guitar riff and breathy melodies, it’s a marvellous blend of sounds like Fleetwood Mac and Love.
Upcoming single “If Wishes Were Horses” has a lovely Krautrock hook; and is a reminder that as wonderful as the paired vocals are, the rhythm section are marvellously unfussy, keeping the song anchored throughout. “Soul Responding” is a Northern Soul stomp, it has an intensity that the more ethereal moments, such as “Hummingbird” lack and shows that when they stick to what they do best, psychedelic pop they’re a mighty proposition.
Sundowners love of 60s stomp will undoubtedly see them rack up ardent admirers on this year’s festival circuit if their burgeoning live reputation is anything to go by – indeed the album itself was recorded live for the most part. The relentless beat group energy of the instrumentation blends wonderfully the laidback, insouciant cool of the vocal harmonies. It’s an unabashed paean to psychedelia, and at its best channels Jefferson Airplane,
The Pretenders. regarded as one of the best debut albums ever recorded, Pretenders was chocked full of moxie and attitude. As a part of the second British Invasion, they joined artists such as Elvis Costello, The Clash and Joe Jackson in redefining music in the late ’70s and early ’80s. The band punches us in the stomach with the punk-inspired track “Precious,” but that was just the beginning of the thrashing as “The Wait” and “Tattooed Love Boys” added fuel to the fire. They did go soft on us with the Kinks’ “Stop Your Sobbing,” “Lovers of Today” and “Kid.” They even managed to get a pop song on the radio with “Brass in Pocket.” Chrissie and company have churned out several albums since their debut and have had some hits, but this recording remains to be the band’s best.
Pretenders are an English-American rock band formed in Hereford, England, in March 1978. The original band comprised initiator and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), James Honeyman-Scott (lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards), Pete Farndon (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Martin Chambers (drums, backing vocals, percussion). Following the drug-related deaths of Honeyman-Scott and Farndon, the band has experienced numerous subsequent personnel changes, with Chrissie Hynde as the only consistent member, and Chambers returning after an absence of several years.Their self-titled debut album was released at the end of December 1979 and was a success in the United Kingdom and the United States Pretenders was subsequently named one of the best albums of all time by Rolling Stone,
I absolutely loved La Sera‘s last album, 2012’s “Sees the Light” and I had also heard rumblings from those who had heard about this LP being completed for months before the release date.
singer-songwriter Katy Goodman‘s mellower, sadder earlier works under her nom de plume La Sera, was stressed. Goodman even said “I didn’t want it to be another record of me sad, alone in my room. I wanted to have fun playing music and writing songs with a band.” adding Morgan also plays with Goodman in Books of Love, the press is a bit misleading. When your lead-off track is called “Losing to the Dark” and chronicles the sadness and frustration of a lover’s decay from nightly alcohol and drug abuse,
Still, the music on this track is indeed faster and more aggressive than anything La Sera has done to date and like she does on some other cuts on the album, Goodman sounds more enraged than wistful. And like so much classic pop, it combines cheery, upbeat melodies with lyrics evoking the many struggles of everyday life. but at heart I think she knows that even the bouncy “It’s My Party” is lyrically a sad song with its references to crying.
After “Losing to the Dark,” the pace settles down a bit with the jangly, Roy Orbison-like “Summer of Love” before ace guitarist Wisenbaker unleashes a great Billy Zoom-like riff to open “Running Wild,” another tale of a wayward lover. The “go go go go” vocal part that then launches into the solo is a particular highlight.
Elsewhere, the title track, “Kiss This Town Away” and “Control” are all further highlights of this consistently great album. There’s even a track oddly called “10 Headed Goat Wizard” though as far as I can tell it has nothing to do with heavy metal or gaming . And don’t miss the gorgeous, Smiths-like “Fall in Place.”
Perhaps there is so much drama on the rest of the album that closing with the instrumental though it features ghostly harmonies from each band member) “Storm’s End” is appropriate here. And like the title implies, there is much more going on here than meets the surface. In short, this is one of 2014’s best albums and perhaps La Sera’s best work yet.
When the new album from The Decemberists, “What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World” comes out on 20th January – it will have been just over four years since their last release, During this time Colin Meloy the singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, Has written no fewer than three Wildwood fantasy novels that were received with, uh, wild enthusiasm and illustrated by his wife Carson Ellis. Meloy spoke about how writing the series affected the songs on the record and generously gave context to where The Decemberists are now by commenting on all their releases to date.
Hear Colin play songs from the forthcoming album and enjoy this great opportunity to get to know the man and the band much more intimately.
It is impossible for any character to make it through an entire Decemberists song without drowning; heaven help us if anyone ever relates the tale of Atlantis to Colin Meloy, who will immediately begin to shake and bleed and spew out song lyrics about sailors walled up in catacombs and ancient queens’ abortions if he ever learns that there is an entire drowned city in the annals of folklore. If someone is not drowning, they are merrily rattling their scimitars in the Boer Civil Spanish War or flinging infants into cisterns and committing gang rape in coastal cities. Here is a thorough and exhaustively researched list of all of the prosecutable felonies named in The Decemberist’s six studio albums; may their sentences be extensive.
Castaways and Cutouts, 2002
Infanticide, “Leslie Anne Levine”
Bootlegging, possible manslaughter, “July! July!”
Rape, multiple counts; aggravated assault; kidnapping, “A Cautionary Song”
Rape, assault, assault with a lethal weapon, “Odalisque”
Election fraud, “Cocoon”
Possession of a controlled substance (Class I), “The Legionnaire’s Lament”
N.B. The admission of “paying [one’s] debt to society” in “California One” is inadmissable, as library fines do not qualify as a felony, no matter how large the amount owed
Her Majesty The Decemberists, 2003
Criminal threat and assault, “Shanty For the Arethusa”
Indecent exposure, “Billy Liar”
Assault and battery, infanticide, “The Bachelor and the Bride”
Picaresque, 2005
Providing alcohol to a minor, “The Infanta”
Rape, criminal liability in relation to suicide, “We Both Go Down Together”
Murder of a police officer in the line of duty, treason, bribery of a public official, “The Bagman’s Gambit”
Aggravated assault and battery, “The Mariner’s Revenge Song”
The Crane Wife, 2006
Assault and rape, “The Landlord’s Daughter”
Murder in the first degree, “You’ll Not Feel The Drowning”
Manslaughter, suspected arson, “O Valencia”
Kidnapping, grand theft, manslaughter, “The Perfect Crime #2″
Criminal threat and murder in the second degree, “The Shankill Butchers”
Bribery of a police officer, multiple counts; kidnapping, “The Perfect Crime #1″
The Hazards of Love, 2009
Murder in the first degree, three counts; desecration of a corpse “The Rake’s Song”
Kidnapping, “The Abduction of Margaret”
The King Is Dead, 2011
There are no felonies committed in The King Is Dead. While “scores of innocents die” in “Calamity Song,” the fault cannot be pinned on the narrator; the “you” in “All Arise!” commits multiple acts of theft,
The Decemberists don’t have a single bad record in their discography. You could also say it’s pointless to categorize their work in the first place since it all follows the same solid formula of old-timey musicality, Dickensian vocabulary, and highfalutin storytelling. But we’d argue that while every Decemberists album does indeed feature these things, it’s to differing degrees and always done with a specific mission in mind. Luckily, we’ve outlined these slight changes in temperature for you, from the dark outcast sympathy of Castaways and Cutouts to the country leanings of The King Is Dead. Where their seventh studio album, What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World (out January 20th), will land on the spectrum is anybody’s guess, but we can almost guarantee it will be a variation on a theme we’ve come to love.
While The Decemberists’ debut, “Castaways and Cutouts”, was never anything short of literary in its aspirations (and is a more solid set of songs front-to-back), Her Majesty the Decemberists was the band’s first release that could truly be called theatrical. For hard evidence of this, look no further than the seven-minute manifesto “I Was Meant for the Stage”. With the help of horns, keys, strings, and bells, Colin Meloy and company spin tales on Her Majesty that maintain the richness of their previous works (the 5 Songs EP and Castaways), but also bring their musicianship and lyricism to new heights. Songs like the sly “The Soldiering Life”, about men who are more than just battlefield comrades, showcase Meloy’s ever-expanding vocabulary — “bombazine” is just one of the words on Her Majesty that no indie rock lyricist had ever employed and probably never will again (it’s an archaic fabric made of silk and/or wool, in case you were curious). As exciting as it was to see The Decemberists best themselves on 2005’s Picaresque, they could’ve laid down their instruments after Her Majesty and still have had a rich body of work to be proud of.
Though I’ve never heard anyone argue it’s The Decemberists’ best album, “The King Is Dead” might be the most accessible, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 200 thanks to a cast of cameos that included singer-songwriter Gillian Welch and R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck. According to Meloy, the band’s sixth album reflects a retreat from the lavish British progvfolk that underpinned Picaresque, The Crane Wife, and The Hazards of Love in favor of more stripped-down American folk influences. Seeking to craft “first-person meditations, rather than third-person fantasies,” Meloy penned many of the album’s 10 tracks while settling into his new home amidst Oregon’s Willamette River and Tualatin Mountains. “January Hymn” and “June Hymn” are both firmly rooted in these surroundings, as is the harmonica-drenched “Don’t Carry It All”.
Likewise, “Down by the Water” — brimming with an accordion, harmonica, Peter Buck’s 12-string, and Welch’s resounding vocals — sounds fulsome but never turgid. “This Is Why We Fight” chronicles the wastes of war with an icy clarity, while the country closer, “Dear Avery”, sends us off with meandering pedal steel and angelic female harmonies. A tight album with almost no filler, The King Is Dead has The Decemberists breaking away from their signature sound to try something new.
Two Christmases (or Decembers!) ago, I told a friend I had just watched my second-favorite Batman movie, Batman Returns. “Ah,” he nodded. “When Burton goes total Burton.” “Exactly!” I said, before he told me he actually hated the film. Regardless of our differing views on its quality, we both agreed it was The Dark Knight at his most extreme, an unapologetic story where all of the things fans love — and hate — about him get brought to the forefront in grotesque, gothic glory.
So if we’re talking about “The Hazards of Love” in cinematic Batman terms, this would be the record where Meloy goes full Meloy. Sure “The Crane Wife” took The Decemberists’ love of yarn-spinning up a tier by featuring two songs about the same Japanese myth, but Hazards is a full-blown rock opera with a complete beginning, middle, and end to its long-form narrative. Your feelings toward the tale of forbidden love between a young woman and a sylvan shape-shifter — not to mention Chris Funk’s Sabbath-esque guitar theatrics, the multiple character voices, and a choir of ghost children — largely depend on your taste for the histrionic. But love it or hate it, the band’s unwavering loyalty to their vision demands respect. After all, how many true rock operas have there even been in the 21st century
“Castaways and Cutouts” opens with a song told from the perspective of a dead girl. Leslie Anne Levine’s mother “birthed me down a dry ravine,” she tells us, and the combination of macabre, vivid lyrics, and whimsical accordion tell you most of what you need to know about The Decemberists’ debut. In between Leslie Anne’s unfortunate story and the dreamy escapism of “California One / Youth and Beauty Brigade” at the close, Colin Meloy and his cohorts sketch a number of lushly detailed (albeit ominous) pictures, from a mother of dubious profession (“A Cautionary Song”) to romance in impossible situations (“Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect”) and an especially morose New Year’s Day (“Grace Cathedral Hill”). Despite the general cloud of gloom, Castaways still showcases some of the sharpest and most enjoyable storytelling in The Decemberists’ catalog, and lays the groundwork for more ambitious triumphs such as Picaresque and The Crane Wife.
Her Majesty and, to an extent, Picaresque both contained a few allusions to existing pieces of literature (“Song for Myla Goldberg”, “Of Angels and Angles”, etc.). But on “The Crane Wife”, Meloy gets more epic, pulling from a Japanese myth for the multi-part title track and Shakespeare’s The Tempest for the 12-and-a-half-minute “The Island”. Unlike The Hazards of Love, however, The Crane Wife‘s stories are simple enough to enjoy without having to read along on the lyrics sheet, making it the most user-friendly Decemberists album (other than maybe The King Is Dead) to new fans. Also, while the tale at the center does involve a shape-shifting crane, the words stay rooted in the difficulty of marriage and romantic expectation, a topic that far more of us can relate to than a transmogrified bird.
Kicking off with a cathartic shriek, Picaresque is The Decemberists’ most extravagant and brazen offering, at least musically speaking. Anchored by the delightfully outlandish lyrics of Colin Meloy and Chris Funk’s instrumental bag of tricks (hurdy-gurdy, bouzouki, and mountain dulcimer all make an appearance), the band’s third album earned them universal critical acclaim and an instant cult following.
But whereas the equally spectacular Hazards stuck to one story, Picaresque covers an insane amount of ground. Evoking impending doom and the blinding ecstasy of love, frantic violins frame a star-crossed couple’s struggle on “We Both Go Down Together”. Unable to reconcile his sweetheart’s sordid past (“tattooed tramp”) with the stifling expectations of an elitist patriarch, the singer finds suicide to be the couple’s only form of salvation: “And while the seagulls are crying/ We fall but our souls are flying.” There’s also a self-conscious ditty about athletic incompetence (“The Sporting Life”), a diatribe on the rigidity of socioeconomic hierarchies (“The Engine Driver”), and an eight-minute gypsy rock saga chronicling naturalistic calamity, exploited kindness, and masochistic retribution (“The Mariner’s Revenge Song”).
“16 Military Wives” is another notable entry as, unlike Picaresque‘s other songs, it takes its inspiration from real life, serving as an anthemic rebuke of President Bush and the media’s lame response. Backed by a majestically swirling organ, Meloy belts out in righteous frustration, “If America says it’s so/ It’s so!/ And the anchorperson on TV/ Goes la-di-da-di-da-didi-didi-da!” Touting a more sparse arrangement, closing track “Of Angels and Angles” finds the singer sounding wounded and exposed over nothing except a gentle acoustic guitar. It’s a fitting testament to an album whose diversity not only defined The Decemberists, but inspired a whole generation of Pacific Northwest folkies. A full decade later, its reverberations are still being heard.
Little Feat are one of the most influential American bands of the seventies. Founded by Lowell George and Bill Payne in L.A. in 1969 they produced a series of highly original albums over the next decade featuring an eclectic blend of rock n roll, blues, country, folk, soul and jazz before the death of Lowell George in 1979 brought the first phase of the band s existence to an end. This CD+DVD live set captures the band at their best and for many years this was a renowed bootleg, the band s performance at the famous Dutch festival Pinkpop on 7 June 1976 the band s classic line-up at the peak of their powers performing many of their best known tracks.
This CD + DVD of the live show packaged in a slimline CD jewelcase. First ever release of this 1976 concert in any format. The four surviving members of this classic line-up are still performing and recording as Little Feat today. Includes the classics: Rock And Roll Doctor , Dixie Chicken , Feats Don t Fail Me Now , Skin It Back , Teenage Nervous Breakdown , Fat Man In A Bathtub and more. Now available on Amazon.
At just 21 years of age Icelandic singer-songwriter Ásgeir has become a sensation in his domestic music scene – staggeringly, almost 10% of the Icelandic population now own his debut album ‘Dyrd í dauðathogn’ – the English version, translated by John Grant, will be released worldwide as ‘In The Silence’ and is out now.
In Cayetana, there’s a point where songwriting gets so specific, so personal and nuanced, that it all of a sudden transcends idiosyncracy and becomes universal. That’s what makes Cayetana’s debut LP “Nervous Like Me” such a winning record. Whether the experiences are her own, imagined or some combination of the two, frontwoman Augusta Koch tells lyrical stories you instantly relate to. Stories of emotional dependency and toxic friendships (“Serious Things are Stupid,” “Dirty Laundry”), of the beautiful transience of twentysomething life (“Scott Get The Van, I’m Moving,” “South Philly”), of discovering empowerment in solitude (“Madame B”). But it’s not just the subject matter that makes this a great album – it’s the hooks. These are some catchy-as-hell songs, most clocking in around or under three minutes; most moving at a brisk pace, propelled by Kelly Olsen’s aggressive drums and Allegra Anka’s wandering, New Order-ish bass counterpoints; most featuring endlessly sing-along-able passages. The title, “Nervous Like Me”, is also apt.
The album has a nervous energy undercurrent in the frenzied drumbeats and jagged guitars and Koch’s tender, quivering delivery. You can feel that tension, that uncertainty and fear, and in her words she spells out explicity why it exists. Even though you haven’t specifically been in the same place, you know how she feels, you can relate. And that is the power of strong, honest songwriting.
thanks to the Key,
When the fifth album from Brooklyn art rockers TV on the Radio was released in November, I was instantly hooked. The single, “Happy Idiot” is an enthralling and magnetic track about being so stupidly happy that you’re standing in the middle of the road, waving at cars, “Seeds” as a whole connects musical bridges and hones together indie, funk, synth pop, and melancholy rock. It’s got that total feel-good, emotional turmoil thing going on, and i don’t think anyone is complaining.
Fresh off their Big Sur debut at Henry Miller, Seeds marks the Brooklyn art rockers’ first studio record since losing bassist Gerard Smith to lung cancer three years ago. Like 2008’s “Dear Science”, “Seeds” distances itself just enough from esoteric places while embracing the right amount of pop. The vintage NYC punk number “Lazerray” and melodically whimsical “Happy Idiot” mark two of the 12 tracks
The songs here are great. Not as good as Dear Science, but better than Nine Types of Light. This one’s a little bit different – there’s less variety and more cheerfulness than normal, but still plenty to reward repeat listens and I’ve been playing it a lot.
So why not five stars? Well it just sounds… a bit boring. The sound is quite compressed so everything’s at about the same volume. Therefore it doesn’t grab the attention like it should, and after hearing it for a bit I find my mind starts to wander and it fades into the background. This is a real shame as the production on the last two albums was fantastic. If David Sitek had mastered this one in the same way it would easily be up there with Dear Science. However it’s still recommended.
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