Posts Tagged ‘Welles’

WELLES – ” Hold Me Like Im Leaving “

Posted: June 27, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , ,
0

A cross between of the Beatles and Foxygen served as muses for Welles’ “Hold Me Like I’m Leaving,” a hard rocking tune from the Nashville band’s new album, Red Trees & White Trashes, .

Singer-guitarist Jesse Wells says the song was somewhat of a made-to-order creation. “I’d been writing some songs and management wanted some more tunes,” Wells says. “I had this Beatles ditty in my head from The White Album, ‘Cry Baby Cry,’ that’s been stuck in my head all these years. So I just wrote (‘Hold Me Like I’m Leaving’) from that, added a melody, chorus and pre-chorus and wrote the song. The lyrics are a little dramatic, I think.”

In fact, “Hold Me Like I’m Leaving’s” hook line, “I ain’t cut out for love,” came from Foxygen’s “Oh No 2,” which Wells acknowledges he “misheard.” “He goes, ‘I’m not one for love.’ That’s always stuck with me, too,” Wells explains.

Wells, originally an Arkansas native, created Red Trees & White Trashes from an estimated 200 songs he’d written, with a straightforward mission. “I was just trying to make an incredibly authentic rock ‘n’ roll record, which is about all I think I can do,” explains Wells, whose tie to music comes from a grandfather who gave him a new Beatles album for each birthday. “What I do is pretty broad but definitely within classic rock radio. That’s what I grew up. That’s what I listen to. I’ll hear the Lovin’ Spoonful’s ‘Daydream’ and I’ll go, ‘I want to write ‘Daydream’ and go downstairs and write my version of it. That’s how I get all the songs. I’m inspired one tune at a time.”

Red Trees & White Trashes, which producer Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell) contributed to, features 11 of those creations. And while Welles has heavy touring planned for the fall, Wells, who also works at an East Nashville coffee shop, plans to keep adding to his stockpile of material. “I’ve got songs,” he says, “and I’ll write more. I look down the lane and I don’t see a lot of people in there with me. I’m not trying to bring rock n’ roll back or anything like that. This is just how I talk. This is my musical language, and if you want to have a conversation with me you’re gonna have to listen to some rock n’ roll, I reckon.”

WELLES – ” Codine EP “

Posted: June 19, 2018 in MUSIC
Tags: , , ,
0

Image may contain: 1 person, text

These songs comes courtesy of Welles, a Nashville-based band fronted by Jehsea Wells, who had his origins in Ozark, Arkansas. They has a distinctly psychedelic influence to their music-making (at least based on this song),

Wells grew up in Arkansas and, until recently, lived in an art commune in the gorgeous mountain lands around Fayetteville. In his gently drifting power ballad “Seventeen” – which may be a bit of a tribute to Big Star’s great song about the same kind of angst, “Thirteen”  Wells tells his messed-up love he’d like to bring them to “Ar-Kansas, where there’s beer and molasses” and a certain immunity to time and those titular “red trees and white trashes” dot the psychedelic landscape. Unlike other artists who’ve found inspiration in the region’s woodsy cover and nighttime heat, and are keeping feedback-fed rock alive by not worrying about anybody else’s idea of what’s cool.

http://

At only 23, Wells is already writing hooks that any of his heroes would envy. In Nashville he’s found bandmates who can take his vision past what he could do in Fayetteville’s coffee houses and backyards.

Keep posted for their upcoming EP called Codeine, via C3 Records.

WELLES – ” Red Trees and White Trashes “

Posted: June 11, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , ,
2

First rule of rock and roll: Make sure the music knows how much you love it. So, since the beginning, rockers have praised, named, and given thanks to rock and roll in song. Chuck Berry did it. So did Lou Reed and Joan Jett and Led Zeppelin and David Bowie. Laying his claim, Jesse Wells does it too, in one of the fuzz-fed brush fires he and his band – simply called Welles – light on this debut album.

The sound of Red Trees and White Trashes is confrontational and fun, marked by psychedelia and grunge (in 2015, Wells released a cover of Nirvana’s “Heart Shaped Box”) but with a little bit of Southern pastoralism in the mix. Wells grew up in Arkansas and, until recently, lived in an art commune in the gorgeous mountain lands around Fayetteville. In his gently drifting power ballad “Seventeen” which may be a bit of a tribute to Big Star’s great song about the same kind of angst, “Thirteen” – Wells tells his messed-up love he’d like to bring them to “Ar-Kansas, where there’s beer and molasses” and a certain immunity to time and those titular “red trees and white trashes” dot the psychedelic landscape. The feel of this album recalls other 21st-century Southern rock survivalists like Cage the Elephant and All Them Witches – artists who’ve found inspiration in the region’s woodsy cover and nighttime heat, and are keeping feedback-fed rock alive by not worrying about anybody else’s idea of what’s cool.

At only 23, Wells is already writing hooks that any of his heroes would envy. In Nashville he’s found bandmates who can take his vision past what he could do in Fayetteville’s coffee houses and backyards. The sound on this album is huge, putting Welles in the same league as the smart bands reviving rock’s mainstream right now, like Royal Blood and Greta Van Fleet. Produced by Beau Boggs (who’s known for his work with Nashville mavericks from Jamey Johnson to Natalie Prass) and Bobby Emmett, with three tracks helmed by Dave Cobb (reminding the world here that he started his ascent as a producer in a rock band of his own), Red Trees and White Trashes has the heft and complexity to likely earn a few Grammy nominations; but it’s also obvious that Wells will always be comfortable in some dirty rock and roll kitchen where, as he says in one song, “everyone’s kinda ugly in that way that looks pretty,” girls in blue bobs are smoking something illegal, and somebody’s turned the amp up to 10 on the other side of the screen door. “It’s just summer again,” Wells cries as the bass line creeps like a snake in the grass. “Giving it away to the night life trend all again.” Giving it away to the thing that gives it all to you: rock and roll.

WELLES – ” Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings ” Father John Misty Cover

Posted: May 27, 2017 in MUSIC
Tags: , , , ,
0

Image may contain: car and outdoor

Welles make music that’s influenced from the past but is authentically present. It’s the thoughts and sounds of a busy and energetic mind. Their debut EP Codeine came out April 28th

I heard Sgt. Pepper’s in ‘97 – that album built every bike ramp I had from ‘97-’02 at least. I saw Queen on public access television and that was awe-inspiring. I saw local bands in Arkansas playing “Surf Wax America” in a shed in Fort Smith and that turned me green with envy, gave me a yearning to be the one playing live music late at night. There were tangents, small town dreams of athletic success, maybe be a poet, maybe get comfy with Nascar and Busch Lite in the river valley, marry a mobile home, but when I think of these tangents there’s always a soundtrack. A slide show riddled with clips of Electric Wizard, CCR, White Album, Bleach, Dead Moon, and my homemade attempts. In the end I’d be awfully uncomfortable doin’ anything else.

WELLES – “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings”  Father John Misty Cover
Recorded Live: 3/31/2017 – Paste Studios – New York, NY

WELLES – ” Life Like Mine “

Posted: May 25, 2017 in MUSIC
Tags: , ,
0

Image may contain: text

Arkansas rockers Welles have released their very first music video,  “Life Like Mine” is an ethereal delight, complete with giant paper mache hands and an entire garden’s worth of flowers.

The video is filled with psychedelic visuals and sort of reads like a four-minute-long acid trip. The band prances around tunnels in New York City, oblivious to their own peculiarities.

Jehsea Welles—Welles’ frontman, whose vocals are reminiscent of a long-lost Beatle—describes his sound as “burnt toast.” He’s unfair to himself; he has a inimitable voice that can’t be taught or acquired over time. This exceptionality perfectly complements the theme of “Life Like Mine,” which focuses on the gifted outsider’s tendency to estrange themselves from society.

Official music video for “Life Like Mine” by Welles.