Category Archives: Free Stream

The Impressions: The Curtom Years

Impressions_BestOfCurtomYearsThe Impressions’ Hot 100 singles, 1968-76

The Impressions have a long history, rooted in their late-50s Tennessee origins as The Roosters, growing through their 1960s reformation in Chicago as the Impressions, and continuing to the present day as a live act. Their earliest hits featured Jerry Butler as lead singer, their fertile middle period was voiced by Curtis Mayfield, and their post-Mayfield years were fronted variously by LeRoy Hutson, Ralph Johnson, Reggie Torian and Nate Evans. Many of the group’s iconic sides were waxed for ABC-Paramount in the mid-60s, but this 1968-76 run on Mayfield’s Curtom label is highlighted by both hits (“This Is My Country,” “Choice of Colors,” “Check Out Your Mind” and “Finally Got Myself Together (I’m A Changed Man)”) and Mayfield’s growing sophistication as a composer and social critic.

These eighteen tracks include all of the Curtom singles that cracked the Top 100, plus “Loving Power,” which bubbled under at #103, and “This Time,” which was released by Cotillion. Following Mayfield’s departure (his last lead vocal here is 1971’s “Ain’t Got Time”), the lead slot was passed between Leroy Hutson (“Love Me”, a Mayfield song), Fred Cash (on the Preacher Man album, not sampled here), Ralph Johnson (“If It’s in You to Do Wrong” and “Finally Got Myself Together (I’m A Changed Man)”) and Nate Evans (“This Time”). The group’s gospel foundation, sophisticated soul style and trademark harmonies continued to flourish, though only “Finally Got Myself Together” brought them back to widespread commercial success.

The set’s 12-page booklet includes detailed liner notes by A. Scott Galloway, and the track list’s sampling of late-60s-to-early-70s sides provides a good introduction to the group’s Curtom era. There’s nearly a dozen more Curtom singles to be heard, some non-charting and some that charted only R&B, as well as a full catalog of albums. For a deeper look, check out the many original album reissues, including This is My Country, The Young Mods’ Forgotten Story, Check Out Your Mind!, and Times Have Changed. For a listen to their earlier years, check out The Complete A & B Sides 1961-1968. But for an introduction to Mayfield’s last years with the group, and their post-Mayfield singles, this is a great place to start. [©2016 Hyperbolium] 

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Jimbo Mathus: Band of Storms

JimboMathus_BandOfStormsFunky southern odds ‘n’ sods

Mathus has suggested that this twenty-three minute, nine-song EP, gathers errata from his brain; and given the stylistic diversity – Stones-ish rock, second-line stomp, Cash-styled country, garage punk, dark blues and string-backed hollers – he seems to be right. He caroms from style to style, but it’s held together with a soulful looseness that makes the uptempo numbers celebratory and the darker songs more leer than threat. Well, except for the tortured murder ballad “Stop Your Crying,” which is plenty threatening. “Massive Confusion” sounds like Springsteen busting out someone’s well-loved ‘60s B-side, yet it’s a fantastic original, and “Wayward Wind” suggests what Tom Waits might have sounded like had he woken up on the other side of Nashville’s tracks. Mathus is an expressive singer, letting his voice run freely to its edges and pulling back for the confessional “Slow Down Sun.” Several songs fade early, with the cork stuffed in the production bottle as soon as the lightning was captured. The brevity crystallizes the moments of inspiration, but also omits the usual musical resolutions. The songs aren’t as riddled with Southern talismen as earlier releases, but the closing “Catahoula” leaves no mistaking Mathus’ origins. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

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Dave Insley: Just the Way That I Am

DaveInsley_JustTheWayThatIAmA modern, deadpan spin on classic country heartache

Dave Insley’s latest album – his fourth – is full of loss and waiting. Waiting for the phone to ring. Waiting for a change of mind. Waiting to feel better. His deadpan delivery is both stalwart and ironic as the boozy night of “Drinking Wine and Staring at the Phone” is as much a songwriter’s document of a protagonist’s lament as as it is the protagonist’s actual lament. Someone else might drown in the heartbreak, but Insley wears his misery as a badge, and the bouncy beat, sliding trombone and barroom piano provide comic ballast. He commiserates with Kelly Willis on the duet “Win-Win Situation for Losers,” but the slightest vocal hiccup offers a crack through which his lack of passion can be seen.

Insley’s pleas are open ended, with the mild protestations of “Call Me If You Ever Change Your Mind” undercut by the title’s second (or likely fifth or sixth) chance. Waiting turns to expectation as “Footprints in the Snow” anticipates memories before they’ve even been made. Memories don’t just linger in Insley’s world, they threaten in advance, and hearts don’t so much break as they ache endlessly. But as much as he describes his pain and loneliness, the wounds are more shellshock than tears. He’s a ghost who can’t bring himself to haunt on “No One to Come Home To,” and the imagined demise of “Dead and Gone,” with a guest vocal tag from Dale Watson, brings forth humor and solace rather than sorrow.

The album departs from waiting on heartache in its latter third, with the family portrait “We’re All Together Because of You,” the philosophical “Just the Way That I Am” and fatalistic “Everything Must Last.” The horns, accordion and trail rhythm of “Arizona Territory 1904” echo Marty Robbins’ gunfighter ballads, while the lyric retells Robbins’ “Big Iron” from the outlaw’s point of view. It’s a good example of Insley’s songwriting craft and understated vocal style, which are backed throughout the album by Redd Volkaert (whose electric guitar on “Call Me If You Ever Change Your Mind” is truly inspired), Rick Shea, Danny B. Harvey, Bobby Snell, Beth Chrisman and others. It’s been eight years since he uncorked West Texas Wine, but the new vintage was worth the wait. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

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Charlie Faye & The Fayettes: Charlie Faye & The Fayettes

CharlieFayeAndTheFayettes_STAustin singer-songwriter dives into early ‘60s girl-group sound

If the 1960s Playtone label wasn’t a fictional construct of That Thing You Do, the label’s A&R rep would surely have signed Charlie Faye. Her spin on soul-tinged girl-group pop echoes the pastiches of Diane Dane and the Chantrellines, and in turn tips a hat to the sources from which the film drew. Faye’s soulful roots can be heard in 2013’s You Were Fine, You Weren’t Even Lonely, but the complicated, contemporary posture of that outing is shed as she and the Fayettes explore the romantic travails of the early ‘60s. Faye’s traded her solo spotlight and singer-songwriter stool for vintage party dresses and harmony singers.

A New York native, there’s Bacharach-like sophistication in the melody of “Carelessly,” but her adopted Austin surfaces in the twang of “Loving Names.” The soul sound moves further south with the fluid bass line and Memphis-styled guitar of “Sweet Little Messages.” Faye’s songs are filled with the sort of elemental heartbreak that made the Brill Building famous and its songs so memorable. On the surface, this might seem pedestrian compared to the complex emotions of You Were Fine, but writing 100 universally affecting words is often more difficult than writing 1,000 that are more specific and personal.

Faye’s struck a rich vein of new love, broken hearts and second chances – the sort whose first discovery feels like the end of the world, and whose repetition turns out to be the harder lesson. “Coming Round the Bend” borrows the signature riff and optimistic flash of “Then He Kissed Me,” and the bouncy “Delayed Reaction” nods to Jackie DeShannon’s “Breakaway.” The album stretches beyond the coy boundaries of ‘60s girl groups with the opener “Green Light,” and though “Eastside” could usher dancers down a Soul Train line, its Stax-styled groove and horn chart service a serious look at social gentrification.

Faye’s previous albums didn’t exactly draw a line to this retro set, but the surprise is more in the landing spot than the journey. Faye’s repeatedly proved herself an adventurous artist who is committed to her muse. Her 2009 debut, Wilson Street, honored the Austin community into which she’d knit herself, and 2011’s Travels With Charlie was recorded over ten months of collaboration with artists in ten different cities. She follows her artistic desire, and when that led to the girl-group sound, she banded together with BettySoo and Akina Adderley, wrote a terrific batch of 60s-tinged originals, drew up some choreography, and dove in head first. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

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The Posies: Solid States

Posies_SolidStatesMelody-rich duo turns down the guitars, turns up the keyboards

To their credit, the Posies have never abandoned the DIY pop melodicism of their debut, Failure, but neither have they stood still. Their tours of duty with Big Star helped resurrect the iconic band as both a touring entity and recording outfit, and while it may have further informed the Posies, it didn’t turn them into a clone. The enduring chemistry between Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow has seen the Posies through more than three decades of changes, including divorces, relocations and the passing of bandmates. The duo’s melodic and harmonic connections draw a line through their catalog, even as their latest – their first album of original material since 2010’s Blood/Candy – lowers the guitar quotient for productions often driven by keyboards.

Thirty years in, the pair is more musically sophisticated and their studio technology is greatly advanced from the late-80s, but the enthusiasm and freedom of their debut repeats itself here. As the band has pointed out, in many ways this represents a return to the self-produced home studio recordings of their debut. And with the passing of their rhythm section, they are effectively a duo again. There’s a modern tone to the anthemic “Titanic,” as there is to much of the album, but with the warmth of a musician’s humanity that’s missing from most of today’s producer-helmed pop hits. The keyboards are ingratiating, and the percussion deftly mixes electronic and acoustic elements.

It’s a departure, but one that fans will easily take to, and one that’s papered over with the familiarity of the duo’s voices and hooks. The album opens with the call-to-arms “We Are Power,” exhorting collective action over individual passivity. Anti-authoritarianism pops up again in “Squirrel vs. Snake” and “The Plague,” and “M Doll” eviscerates the culture of celebrity marketing mannequins. But it’s not all social critique, as there are several songs of romantic rapprochement, cautiously seeking to engage, resurrect or simply support, and the easy synthpop soul of “Rollercoaster Zen” has a hook that’s hypnotic in its repetition.

Auer and Stringfellow play everything here but drums, which fall variously to Frankie Siragusa and Kliph Scurlock, and add a few guest voices to the backing choruses. Their melodies span from immediately hummable to complex, with several suggesting the minor-key sophistication of the Zombies. Those who have been enamored of the Posies melody-rich music will find it intact; it’s not a rehash of what they’ve done before, it’s a musical extension that breaks new ground while hanging on to the band’s essence. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

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The Muffs: Blonder and Blonder

Muffs_BlonderAndBlonder1995 sophomore summit, reissued with bonus tracks!

Two years after their self-titled 1993 debut, the Muffs stripped down to a trio with the departure of Melanie Vammen (less than a week before recording) and the arrival of new drummer Roy McDonald. The result is tighter, punchier and even more ferocious than the first outing, with Kim Shattuck’s songwriting sharpened and her vocals often escalating into howls. The album is a perfect example of pop-punk, marrying the catchy melodies of the former with the unrestrained energy of the latter. Shattuck’s rhythm guitar playing is tough, but her leads have the melodic winsomeness of Gary Lewis & The Playboys records. Even the suicide song, “End It All,” is hummable.

Shattuck notes in the liners that “On and On” was influenced by Freddie & The Dreamers, and indeed the opening riff is lifted from “I’m Telling You Now.” She also notes that “Laying on a Bed of Roses” borrows from the Creation’s “Biff Bang Pow,” and with the transvestite of “Oh, Nina” echoing the Kinks’ “Lola,” the British Invasion connection is strong. Her lyrics can be self-pitying (“Sad Tomorrow”) and bratty (“Won’t Come Out to Play”), but she’s nobody’s fool, easily kicking a cheater to the curb in “What You’ve Done.” The album closes with an unusual segue between the freakout “I’m Confused” and the spiffed-up acoustic demo “Just a Game,” ending in a couplet that encapsulates the yin and yang of punk-pop.

Omnivore’s 2016 reissue adds the UK B-sides “Become Undone” and “Goodnight Now,” and demos of “Red Eyed Troll,” “Won’t Come Out to Play” (with its Buddy Holly roots intact) and “Pennywhore” (which turned up on Happy Birthday to Me). Also featured are demos of “Born Today” and “Look at Me,” neither of which seem to have made it to final form. Unlike the guitar-and-voice demos on the debut album’s reissue, these tracks have basic bass and drums that indicate what they’d sound like as band songs. There’s a taste of Shattuck’s demo of “Become Undone” at the end of track twenty-one, and a hidden backwards CD bonus track at #22, but the demo of “I’m Confused” that Shattuck lauds in the liners is MIA.

The reissue’s 20-page booklet includes numerous photos, liner notes by Ronnie Barrett and Roy McDonald, the latter detailing his second chance at joining the band, and song notes by Shattuck. This is a good upgrade for fans who already have the original album, and the place to start for those who haven’t yet dived into the Muffs. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

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Swedish Polarbears: The Great Northern

SwedishPolarbears_TheGreatNorthernHarmony and guitar-rich power-pop from Sweden

It’s been ten years since this Swedish quartet broke on the power-pop scene with their Teenage Fanclub tribute, “Norman Blake.” They’ve released the odd single and EP over the intervening years, but it’s taken a full decade for them to write and record a proper debut album. And yes, it was worth the wait. The group’s harmonies are gorgeous, the guitar sounds superb, and the first single, “Winter,” is awash in Byrdsian jangle and folk-styled harmonies. The group’s fascination with Teenage Fanclub hasn’t abated, but you can also hear the influences of the Searchers, Motors and Beach Boys. The album is awash in catchy melodies, tight harmonies and walls of electric guitars, all finely balanced against a solid rhythm section of hummable bass lines and full-kit drum fills. The group’s amalgam of pop influences may not break new ground, but the precision and joie de vivre with which they weave it all together is quite endearing. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

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