Monthly Archives: September 2009

SwampDaWamp: Rock This Country

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SwampDaWamp_RockThisCountryHeavy Southern party rock

If Southern Rock, Heavy Metal and Arena Rock had mated in the mid-1970s, SwampDaWamp would have been the musical offspring. Gig Michaels’ vocals are gritty, the rhythm guitars thick, the lead playing sharp, and the bass and drums powerful and heavy. There’s a party vibe on the band’s third full-length release, but the core is red, white and blue-collar American rock ‘n’ roll. That latter identity is most fully embraced in the anthems “American Man” and “Rock This Country.” SwampDaWamp’s American experience includes ladies, wild nights, and cathouses, but they also spend a few songs pondering the economically dispossessed and a woman’s troubled path to the brink of suicide. Social consciousness aside, the album closes with “Stoned,” a celebration of artists whose muse has been stoked by grape and grass. It may not have the poetic context of Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35,” but it’s a good time, as is the group’s latest album. Now where’s the SwampDaWamp beer cozy for my PBR? [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Lady
SwampDaWamp’s Home Page
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The Voyces: Let Me Die in Southern California

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Voyces_LetMeDieInSouthernCaliforniaBrilliant restyling of 1970s California soft-rock and folk-pop

The Voyces are a New York-based group fronted by former Californian Brian Wurschum, and including co-vocalist Jude Kastle. Despite his West-to-East migration, Wurschum’s musical ethos remains deeply rooted in the sounds of California pop, drawing heavily on the vibes of 1970s acts like Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles. Not that the Voyces sound like either of these acts, but they do offer a similar warmth in mesmerizing harmonies, and laidback tempos that are more ocean breeze than traffic jam. The high edge of Wurschum’s lead vocals may remind you of Matthew Sweet’s Girlfriend-era singing and, but if you’re memory’s good enough they’ll also suggest singer-songwriter Moon Martin.

After a brief instrumental, the title track opens the album with a letter of longing for the Golden State; trimmed from six minutes to three and sent back in time this could be a huge radio hit in 1976. Wurshum’s sings double-tracked as he escapes into the desert, finds freedom along the highway and immerses himself in the spirituality of coastal waves. The song’s loping rhythm and compressed lead guitar are perfectly complemented by sharp hi-hat strikes and acoustic strums, all played by Wurschum, who manned all of the instruments on the album. The overdubbing gives the album a homemade sound that may remind you of Shoes’ Black Vinyl Shoes and the Posies’ Failure.

Wurschum and Kastle sing of romantic uncertainty, shadowing one another in close harmony on “If I am Not Your Everything, Baby I’m Not Anything,” and accompanied by a heavy bass line, wah-wah rhythm guitar and buzzing Neil Young-styled lead on a remake of Majority Dog’s “Finest Hour.” The album’s love songs, such as “You Can Never Know,” are written and sung as secret professions, filled with earnest emotion that’s cut in half by diffidence. Adolescent angst has grown into adult doubts, and the caffeinated agitation of power-pop has resolved into faithlessness. Wurschum’s repetition of title lyrics and chorus hooks gives these songs a measure of self pity that’s cannily effective in conveying despair.

The album’s sequencing provides several effective transitions, binding the songs into an album. The short acoustic guitar instrumental “La Lonita” provides a restful interlude between the electric guitar that closes “Finest Hour” and the complex vocal harmonies that open “You Can Never Know.” The yearning vocal fade of “You Can Never Know” in turn gives way to the plucked electric guitar and punchy bass and drums of “The Speed of Fear.” These segues draw the ear and mind from one song to the next, much like the crossfades of Pink Floyd’s classic 1970s albums. The closing “It Whispers” is particularly Floyd-like, with a trudging tempo, lengthy guitar solo and a keening vocal that suggests David Gilmour.

The group’s previous releases foreshadowed many of the sounds employed here, but Wursham’s new songs are more intense, the instrumentals rocked up from the folky vibe of 2006’s Love Arcade, and the double-tracked vocals have lost the bubblegum sound evident on “Kissing Like It’s Love” (the best Archies track never actually recorded by the Archies). This is a superbly crafted album, filled with beautiful voices, solid pop-rock playing, thoughtful lyrics and a touch of bedroom production that wraps the album in a shy sweetness. Fans of early ‘70s radio pop (the AM moment between the hippie meltdown and the corporate arena takeover), California production rock, and late-70s power pop will truly love these golden sounds. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Let Me Die in Southern California
MP3 | You Can Never Know
The Voyces’ Home Page
The Voyces’ MySpace Page

Dennis Diken with Bell Sound: Late Music

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DenisDiken_LateMusicBritish Invasion, ‘60s California pop and more from Smithereens drummer

As the drummer for the Smithereens, Dennis Diken’s taken both a figurative and literal backseat to the songwriting and singing of Pat DiNizio. But Diken’s a drummer with a lot of melody in him, as his first solo album so amply shows. Paired with multi-instrumentalist Pete DiBella, Diken not only keeps time but sings most of the leads and backgrounds and co-wrote all thirteen of these throwback pop tunes. Diken draws from the same mid-60s millieu as DiNizio’s Beatle-esque songs for the Smithereens, but he leans more heavily on the mod sounds of the Creation and the Who, the pre-orchestral Moody Blues, the California beach sounds of Gary Usher, the harmonies of the Beach Boys, Raspberries, and Association, and the studio production of Brian Wilson.

The Brian Wilson motifs are particularly striking on the questioning “Standing in Line” which could pass for a long-lost Pet Sounds outtake were it not an original composition. The pleading “Fall Into Your Arms” and alluring “Temptation Cake” further echo the Beach Boys, but also the jazz harmonies from which Brian Wilson drew inspiration. Diken takes inspiration from the Who’s “Bucket T” with the full-kit drumming and power harmonies of “Long Lonely Ride,” and the insistent bass and slashing guitar chords of “The Sun’s Gonna Shine in the Morning” are pure UK freakbeat. Diken and DiBella offer up the good time vibe of the Lovin’ Spoonful, by way of Vince Guaraldi’s “Cast Your Fate to the Wind,” on “Let Your Loved One Sleep” and they dabble in breezy Brazilian easy listening on “Lost Bird.”

The ballads seem more modern on the surface, but are laced with vintage totems of mellotron, electric sitar, French horn, harpsichord, and a variety of electric pianos and organs, suggesting long-lost album tracks by the Electric Prunes. Guest appearances by Andy Paley, Jason Falkner, members of Brian Wilson’s backing band, the Wondermints, and Wilson’s one time side project, the Honeys, are complemented by lesser-known (but no less talented) figures of the retro pop scene, including one-time Optic Nerve keyboardist Dave Amels, producer/musician Andrew Sandoval, and Los Angeles drummer Nelson Bragg. That Diken can sing is no shock to Smithereens fans, but the completeness of his vision as a singer, songwriter and bandleader is a welcome surprise. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Let Your Loved One Sleep
Dennis Diken with Bell Sound’s MySpace Page
The Smithereens’ Home Page

Adam Steffey: One More For the Road

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AdamSteffey_OneMoreForTheRoadAll-star solo album from bluegrass mandolinist

Grammy® winning mandolinist Adam Steffey is best known for his tenures with Union Station and Mountain Heart, and his current gig in the Dan Tyminski band. On this second solo album he’s surrounded himself with bandmates past and present, showcasing not only their instrumental prowess, but their harmony as vocalists. Surprisingly, given his years as a sideman, Steffey is both an interesting baritone lead vocalist and a canny band leader. Rather than crafting a showcase for his sizeable instrumental talent, he’s pulled together friends for sessions that trade off between fiery hot-picked solos and ensemble playing, solo lead vocals and close harmonizing, and original and cover tunes. The result is less a stage-center spotlight for Steffey himself than a group effort reflecting his lengthy experience as a musician.

Alison Krauss sings the bluegrass classic “Warm Kentucky Sunshine,” but despite the beautiful, instantly identifiable singularity of her voice (and a harmony from Dan Tyminski), the result isn’t an Alison Krauss track. Similarly for Tyminski’s lead on “Let Me Fall,” on which Steffey, Ron Stewart and Stuart Duncan trade solos on mandolin, banjo and fiddle. Steffey sings three-part harmony with Barry Bales and Ronnie Bowman on “A Broken Heart Keeps Beatin’,” and a cover of Kris Kristofferson’s “Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends” is sung slowly and beautifully. Steffey’s musicality informs this album, making it a subtle, but quite gratifying “solo” release. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | One More for the Road
Adam Steffey’s MySpace Page

Ray Charles: The Genius Hits the Road

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RayCharles_TheGeniusHitsThe RoadFresh remaster of Ray Charles’ 1960 ABC-Paramount debut

When Ray Charles left Atlantic for ABC-Paramount, he also sought to expand his stardom on the pop carts, solidifying the crossover success he’d begun with the single “What’d I Say” and the album The Genius of Ray Charles. The first outing for his new label was this 12-song release, whose travel- and place-related theme was sufficiently broad to leave Charles room to roam. The song list was compiled from numbers familiar to Charles and others pitched by his new producer Sid Feller. The titles include tin pan alley classics, Dixieland standards, trad jazz and pop numbers and even the nineteenth century minstrel tune, sung here as gospel with the Raeletts, “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny.”

The productions are backed by brassy orchestrations, lush strings and chorused vocals, leaving only short spaces for piano and sax solos. The upbeat numbers are sizzling, swinging supper club jazz, and the ballads, especially Charles’ tour de force interpretation of Hoagy Charmichael’s “Georgia on My Mind,” are deeply soulful. A few of the songs play like novelties today (and perhaps did so in 1960), but Charles gives each his complete his attention and has fun on lighter numbers such as the boastful “New York’s My Home” and the gleeful “Chattanooga Choo-Choo.” Still, even Charles’ effort can’t save a jokey call-and-response version of “Deep in the Heart of Texas.”

By this point in his career, Charles was marketing himself more as a vocalist than a pianist, but his mastery of the keys can be heard in the rolling notes of “Basin Street Blues” and the dreamy flights of “Moonlight in Vermont.” The seven bonus tracks on this reissue duplicate the first four appended to Rhino’s 1997 version, including the chart-topping “Hit the Road Jack” and a swinging soul take on Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky.” Newly added are a romantic version of “The Long and Winding Road,” the country-soul original “I Was On Georgia Time,” and a ham-and-cheesy cover of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Rhino’s bonus picks of “I’m Movin’ On” and “Lonely Avenue” were more solid outings.

These tracks aren’t the gutty jazz and soul of Charles’ Atlantic period, nor the groundbreaking interpretational work he’d unleash on 1962’s Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. They’re a way-point, a transition between Charles’ roots as a jazz player and his future as a pop crooner. The material is a mix of novelties and well-selected chestnuts, and though the orchestrations can get a bit strong, Charles holds down the center with a voice that makes it all worth hearing. As his first top-10 pop album, and hosting his first chart-topping pop single (“Georgia on My Mind”), there are enough winning cuts, particularly the ballads, to merit adding this to your collection. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Care Bears on Fire: Get Over It!

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CareBearsOnFire_GetOverItPerky pop-punk trio enters high-school

Formed in a Brooklyn elementary school, this pop-punk girl trio has finally made it to high school. They issued an EP in 2006 and their first full-length in 2007, and after a few personnel changes, this second full-length in the summer of 2009. Their latest album is filled with originals that harken back to the roots of late ‘70s and early ‘80s punk rock, but unlike those twenty-something’s songs of adolescence, Care Bears on Fire write youth rock as they live it. They play as a tight and punchy power-trio, and though their age is novel, and there’s a cute edge to their young concerns, they’re hardly a novelty.

So what’s on the mind of 15-year-olds these days? For starters: girls who’ll do anything to get their way, peer-pressure, materialism, individualism, the tribulations of school, the realities of social networking, and, of course, boys. The extra sharp combination of “Barbie Eat a Sandwich” and “My Problems” takes on the distorted images of beauty and normalcy hammered into young girls by media and society. All of this is wrapped up in hook-filled melodies, girlish harmonies, and sing-along choruses set to power-chords, thumping bass and crashing drums. The band has a very high ratio of musical quality to years-lived, with songs that aren’t artificially grown-up, written to a calculated Disney heart-tugging angle, or brain-numbingly childish.

Care Bears on Fire hit a sweet-spot that’s appealing to their peers and to adults wanting to get an earful of a literate teenager’s day-to-day concerns. Kim Fowley tried, or at least purported to try, to elicit this sort of music from the Runaways and Venus & The Razorblades, but his manipulations left too many adult fingerprints and often gave their songs an artificial, inflammatory air. In contrast, Care Bears on Fire is the product of three teenagers and thankfully free of grown-up staging. This is terrific pop-punk that’s melodic, honest, clever, powerful and lots of fun. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Care Bears on Fire’s MySpace Page

Mark Stuart and the Bastard Sons: Bend in the Road

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MarkStuartBastardSons_BendInTheRoadArdent, road-hardened country and Americana

The Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash return with their first studio album since 2005’s Mile Markers, and though several players, including bassist Taras Prodaniuk, drummer Dave Raven and guitarist Mike Turner also return, there are some significant changes. First, the band has dropped “of Johnny Cash” from the back end and added singer-songwriter “Mark Stuart” to the front. In many ways the group has been Stuart’s vision from the start, as it was his interest in country music that provided the original direction; the step out front mostly acknowledges what’s already been true.

The latest edition of the Bastards, and Stuart’s latest batch of original tunes (augmented by the opening cover of Billy Joe Shaver’s “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal”), are his best yet. The band plays with more verve and Stuart sings with more freewheeling energy than ever. You can hear the influences of Billy Joe, Waylon and Hank Jr. in his tone, phrasing and attitude; his music has become bluesier and more convincing. Perhaps it’s the refreshment of moving from California to Austin, but more likely it just the authority of road-hardened talent that allows Stuart to romance the melodies and rhythms of his country shuffles and roadhouse blues.

Stuart’s blossoming confidence shows in his songs, which flow from the grooves like old friends. The album’s originals open with the banjo, fiddle and guitar of “Restless, Ramblin’ Man.” Stuart sings against bluegrass harmonies about the uncontrollable wanderlust that’s kept him on the road for two-hundred dates a year. He writes of being blindsided, renewed and supported by love, but also of its ephemeral nature and the blue sorrow of its fade. He finds a comforting conclusion to serial monogamy on “Best Thing” and struts through a romantically sunny day on “Everything’s Going My Way.” Even when he’s kicking up his heels to escape the drudgery of the world’s ills, such as on the Mellancamp-esque “Fireflies & Corn Liquor,” Stuart keeps to the bright side.

The Bastard Sons cook up a country rock sound filled with driving beats, second-line rhythms, twangy electric guitar solos and well-placed blue notes. They only slow down twice, for the ballad “Lonestar, Lovestruck, Blues” and the beseeching lament, “Carolina.” The latter is surprisingly unresolved and morose, given the album’s definitive and upbeat tone. Stuart is on to a next-phase in his music, relaxing into the Austin scene and stepping out from the self-imposed shadow of Johnny Cash. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | When Love Comes A Callin’
Mark Stuart and the Bastard Sons’ MySpace Page

Guy Clark: Somedays the Song Writes You

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GuyClark_SomedaysTheSongWritesYouFinely crafted acoustic country-folk songs from a Texas legend

The songwriter’s craft of juxtaposing words to describe a person, scene or situation or to communicate a feeling is only the surface of a process that starts deep within. The ability to step outside one’s own moment to describe what’s happening or happened, to recognize, observe and frame an experience in which one may be an active participant, is the more ephemeral side of songwriting. It’s something that few do as well as Guy Clark, and married to finely selected words, his songs provide uncommonly detailed and communicative windows into moments and people who might otherwise pass unobserved.

In the title song, Clark addresses the alchemical process of songwriting. He notes that songs often appear to songwriters from thin air to exert themselves into being. But with a writer of Clark’s caliber, years of practice has left him open to divine these works, to snatch a moment of consciousness out of the rushing river of living. On “Hemingway’s Whiskey” he communes writer to writer about the debilitating muse, offering a personal glimpse into the pain of writing, and a picture of drinking as a chronic enabler rather than the classic reactive salve to lost love. Clark is equally effective sketching the seedy side of town, conjuring the scene of a seafarer’s final voyage, and animating a pawn shop guitar. The latter’s twist ending is laid in a lovely flurry of acoustic finger picking.

The album is filled with lush acoustic playing from Clark and Verlon Thompson, and the rhythms of Kenny Malone (drums) and Bryn Davies (bass) provide a stable but subtle bottom end. Clark’s voice has weathered over the years, and though it’s never been the prettiest or most melodic instrument, it’s filled with emotion, particularly when covering his late friend Townes Van Zandt’s “If I Needed You.” His co-writes with Rodney Crowell, Shawn Camp, Gary Nicholson, as well as several up-and-coming writers, bring together two generations of his disciples. Clark’s long been a “songwriter’s songwriter,” but he’s never stopped working on his craft, and the results are plain to hear on this latest release. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | The Guitar
Guy Clark’s Home Page

The Postmarks: Memoirs at the End of the World

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Postmarks_MemoirsAtTheEndOfTheWorldIndie pop band indulges their love of ‘60s film score dynamics

Anyone who’s heard the Postmarks previous two albums will remember how Tim Yehezkely’s breathy vocals recall 1960s French pop chanteuses and more recent vocalists like Nina Persson of the Cardigans and Sarah Cracknell of Saint Etienne, not to mention twee-pop groups such as Heavenly, Talulah Gosh, and the Shop Assistants. The band has always brought a strong ‘60s vibe to their records, with jaunty tempos, summery melodies and brooding bass lines, and their album of covers, By-the-Numbers, laid out many musical influences. Still, their earlier cover of John Barry’s “You Only Live Twice” and a buzzing organ arrangement of Richard Rodgers’ “Slaughter on 10th Avenue” won’t fully prepare you for this full-blown foray into vintage film score sounds.

“No One Said This Would Be Easy” opens the album with orchestral strings, tympani and castanets that suggest James Bond narrowly escaping the clutches of a Russian temptress. The bass and drums underlying the arrangement soften as Yehezkely enters, but the song’s forward momentum doesn’t lose a step, and the bridge add flashes of horns and glockenspiel to the drama. The effect amplifies the power of Yehezkely’s singing without having to amplify her volume or alter her breezy charms. It’s quite the brilliant trick to so fruitfully combine her girlish vocals with scored rock backings. Fans of British production music collections such as The Sound Gallery and The Easy Project will recognize the swinging London and international loungecore vibe.

The group’s indie pop peeks through the grander productions in washes of synthesizers and vocal processing, but the songs are carried by the cinematic bombast surrounding Yahezkely’s dream-cool delivery. The lyrics loom enigmatically, clearing for moments of romantic reverie and painful separation, and there’s a terrific send-up (or perhaps jealous accounting) of “The Jetsetter.” The music’s enchantment is in its melodies and the interplay between Yehezkely’s fetching vocals and the thickly crafted arrangements. This is a sophisticated and charming album whose underlying pop craft casts a big shadow with its soundtrack dynamics. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Stream Memoirs at the End of the World
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The Band of Heathens: One Foot in the Ether

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BandOfHeathens_OneFootInTheEtherAustin-style country, rock, folk, gospel, blues and soul

The Band of Heathens’ second studio album (their fourth overall, having started their recording career with two live releases) is a big step forward. The artistic palette of last year’s eponymous release is carried forward here, but the result sounds less like a collage of influences and more like a band that’s discovered its own groove. The twin inspirations of Little Feat and the Band remain particularly strong, but as channeled spirits rather than imitated sounds. With three singer-songwriters contributing a dozen originals to this self-produced release, the group clearly knows they have the goods. Their experience as a live unit pays dividends in the studio, as they sound like a band running through their set rather than musical architects constructing a recording.

The group’s comfort is immediately apparent on the chorus harmonies of “Say.” Their multipart singing is tight as a drum but also as loose as a casual back porch harmony session. The same is true for the gospel backing of “Shine a Light” and the lead passing on both the Little Feat groove “You’re Gonna Miss Me” and sad-sack blues “Right Here With Me.” This is a group that’s clearly spent time getting comfortable with one another. Their musical sympathy is heard in jamming solos and instrumental codas, and the seemingly ad libbed exhortation to “keep it going” as “You’re Gonna Miss Me” threatens to wind down.

The band’s name proves ironic as their songs are laced with biblical images. They sing of non-conformists, petulant ex-lovers, and independent ramblers, but these tales are filled with doubt and remorse. Gospel influences, both musical and liturgical, praise the hard work of salvation, cast an accusing eye towards the contradictions and hypocrisy of modern society, and call for reconciliation with one another and, seemingly, a higher power. The clanking blues “Golden Calf” warns of a false idol’s allure, and even songs of busted relationships have an eternal ring as they sing “you can give up, you can give in / but you can never quit.”

Last year’s studio debut climbed to the top of the Americana chart and promoted the band from scattered local club dates to a full touring schedule. Their continuing musical growth is evident in both the absorption of their top-line influences and the addition of new touches, such as the dripping Dark Side of the Moon styled guitar of “Look at Miss Ohio.” The results are organic and unforced, and by producing themselves and releasing on their own label, the group remains free to chase their singular, yet multi-headed musical muse. The adage “you have a lifetime to record your first album and a year to record your second” doesn’t seem to have vexed the Band of Heathens at all. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | L.A. County Blues
Band of Heathens’ Home Page
Band of Heathens’ MySpace Page