Category Archives: MP3 Review

The Shants: Beautiful Was the Night

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Weathered Americana spiced with blues, rock and New Orleans grooves

This Oakland, California quartet first turned up two years ago with the rustic, down-tempo Russian River Songs, a short collection that brought to mind the minimalism and melancholy of Richard Buckner’s early works. After gigging and developing their sound, they’ve returned to the studio to record this first full-length. The focal points of their sound remain Skip Allums’ languid vocals and Sam Tokheim’s pedal steel, and though the tempos remain restrained, the subdued tone of their debut has given way to the more aggressive energy of Adam Burstein’s drumming and guitars that are strummed with purpose. Allums has written several songs for his native Baton Rouge, but the lyrical voice is as much that of an ex-lover as an ex-pat. He rummages through bittersweet memories, happily nostalgic from across the physical and temporal divide that separates him from the flawed object of his desire. He longs to return to a place that only exists in his rose-colored memory, just as one might long for a relationship whose rough edges have been obscured by time. He’s homesick, but not enough to actually return. The band adds brass (courtesy of Ralph Carney) to “Brother,” rocks a Velvet Underground rhythm riff on “Evangeline Blues” and strikes a New Orleans groove for the closing “(I’m Not) Gonna Waste Another Song on You,” but it’s their weathered Americana that remains their calling card. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

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The Perms: Sofia Nights

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Power pop from the Great White North

Americans might be surprised to learn that the intersection of “Winnipeg, Manitoba,” and “rock stars” yields no less than the Guess Who, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Crash Test Dummies, and Neil Young. The Perms have been plugging away on the Winnipeg scene since 1997, and their fifth album is a hook-filled collection, heavy on the guitar, bass, drums and harmonies. The vocals range from a low-register that suggests the Smithereens’ Pat DiNizio to the keening edginess of the La’s Lee Mavers; fans of Sloan, Weezer, Teenage Fanclub and Velvet Crush will enjoy these songs of romantic turmoil, adolescent immortality, and the requisite ups and downs one should expect from a power-pop record. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Said and Done
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Various Artists: Beat Beat Beat Volume 3 – Mop Top Pop

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British Invasion sounds of ‘64

The third volume of Castle Music’s British Invasion anthology is now available domestically for digital download. Originally released in 2002, the 56-track collection digs into the Pye Records vault for sides released amid the British Invasion in 1964. The name act most familiar to U.S. listeners is the Searchers (represented here by the lovely “Don’t Throw Your Love Away, the love-lorn beat rock “I Pretend I’m With You” and two more), but the real riches are in the lesser known acts. Highlights include Rod and Carolyn’s tight duet “Talk to Me,” the Monotones’ hand-clapping “It’s Great,” Vandyke & The Bambis foot-stomping Alley Oop-styled “Doin’ the Mod,” Tommy Quickly’s wrought “You Might As Well Forget Him,” the Wedgewoods’ Seekers-styled “September in the Rain,” and Shane and the Shane Gang’s terrific train-rhythm blues “Whistle Stop.” There are enthusiastic covers of “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” “You Can’t Sit Down,” “Sally Go ‘Round the Roses” and the Soul Agents’ should have scored a double A-side with “I Just Wanna Make Love to You” and “Mean Woman Blues.” To be fair, there are also dozens of competent singles and B-sides that rightly made little impression on the UK chart and are unknown in the USA. Still, it’s interesting to hear all the things that Pye was throwing at the market to see what would stick. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Big Star Tribute to Alex Chilton – Digital Release!

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A few months after Alex Chilton’s passing in May 2011, the remaining members of  Big Star (Jody Stephens, Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow) played a tribute show in Memphis at the Levitt Shell. The entire show was recorded, and may eventually see release, but for now, a terrific three-song EP featuring John Davis has made the leap from its initial vinyl release to the digital domain. You can hear it below, and buy it as part of a Big Star bundle at Ardent’s on-line store.

Various Artists: The Minit Records Story

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Two eras of seminal New Orleans label

Originally released by Capitol in 1994 as a limited edition 2-CD set, this 52-track collection is now rescued from the high-prices of the secondary market with an affordable MP3 reissue. Minit Records was established in the early ‘60s in New Orleans by Joe Banashak, and distributed by Imperial. Minit was acquired by Imperial in 1963, but many of the label’s key sides and all of its biggest chart hits, starting with Jessie Hill’s “Ooh Poo Pah Doo, Part 2” and peaking with Ernie K-Doe’s chart-topping “Mother-in-Law,” came before the acquisition, and more importantly, before the departure of the label’s key asset: Allen Toussaint.

Toussaint had made a name for himself in New Orleans music circles as a teenager, and in a fortuitous reassignment of duties at Minit he started scouting new acts and then writing, producing and playing on their records. He infused each production with an irresistible dollop of New Orleans soul that made his records stand out from those produced on the coasts or in hot-spots like Chicago or Memphis. Toussaint is responsible for some of the labels greatest sides, including Benny Spellman’s “Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette),” and its oft-covered flip, “Fortune Teller,” Aaron Neville’s “Over You,” Irma Thomas’ “Ruler of My Heart” and Ernie K-Doe’s “Mother-in-Law.”

Following Toussaint’s departure, the label continued to produce interesting records throughout the 1960s, as showcased on the second disc of this set. The label turned from the New Orleans style of its early singles to soul sounds influenced by Stax (especially its post-Atlantic work), Muscle Shoals and Motown. The results weren’t often as unique, but several singles scored on the R&B chart, and a few crossed over to pop success. Here you’ll find Ike & Tina Turner’s horn-driven soul cover of “I Wish it Would Rain,” electric boogaloo “I Wanna Jump,” and a gritty take on “Come Together,” Bobby Womack’s minor hit cover of “California Dreamin’,” Clydie King’s exuberant “I’ll Never Stop Loving You” and pre-Philly sides by the O’Jays.

Capitol’s digital download edition omits Chris Kenner’s “I Like it Like That, Part 1” (which can be found here), as well as the detailed liner notes that accompanied the CD set, but there’s a lot of great music here, particularly on disc one, at a good price. All selections in this set are mono except for stereo on disc one track 3, 6 and 7 and most of disc two. If your interest is limited to the label’s earlier Allen Toussaint sides, check out the single disc Finger Poppin’ and Stompin’ Feet; for the post-Toussaint releases only, find a copy of The Soul of Minit Records. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

OST: EA Sports NCAA Football 12

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Get pumped for any game

Colin O’Malley’s music cues for EA Sports’ latest edition of their NCAA football video game [PS3 Xbox] stand on their own as inspirational orchestral pieces. If you like the dramatic soundtracks of NFL Films, you’ll enjoy the rousing martial rhythms and soaring brass of these bass and percussion-heavy arrangements. It’s not clear how the musical themes actually relate to titles like “Turnover” and “Coaches Corner” – though you might absentmindedly find yourself avoiding the D-line as “Defense Wins Championships” marches through your living room, or introducing your friends to the television audience as “Pregame Show” rolls. Any one of these pieces could get you to look deeply within your athletic soul to convert a critical fourth down or tip a ball out of the end-zone with your outstretched fingers. Or they could just rouse you to the kitchen to refill the chips and dips. O’Malley’s written for the United States Airforce, CNN and DC Comics, and you can hear both world-beating dominance and military starch in these pieces. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Pratt & McClain: Pratt & McClain

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Iconic TV theme and an album of soft-rock nostalgia

Truett Pratt and Jerry McClain were introduced to one another by the producer Michael Omartian, and after some success recording commercial jingles (under the name Brotherly Love) they signed with Reprise. Their real break, though, was being selected in 1976 to record the theme song to Happy Days. Written by successful television composers Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, the theme song replaced the show’s use of Bill Haley and the Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock,” and promoted with weekly airings, the single peaked at #5. Their only other chart, a cover of “Devil With the Blue Dress,” inched into the Top 100 later in the year. This 1976 album, their second and last, expands on the single’s nostalgia with doo-wop vocals for “Summertime in the City” and “Tonight We’re Going to Fall in Love.” The memories reach back, but the arrangements remain modern with bouncy bass lines, clean guitar sounds and politely soulful sax lines. They try their hand at Billy Joel styled piano ballads, blue-eyed soul, Elton John pop, but nothing that offers up the instantly memorable hooks of the hit single. All that’s missing is the “Happy Days” flip side, “Cruisin’ With the Fonz” (an instrumental version of “Tonight We’re Going to Fall in Love”), that would have made the perfect bonus track. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Donny Most: Donny Most

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TV’s Ralph Malph steps through the screen and tiptoes onto the record chart

To a large extent, actor Donny Most’s 1976 solo album is the archtypical celebrity cash-in. Though no stranger to music – Most had played in Catskills bands as a teenager – his shot at pop stardom was entirely the product of a staring role on Happy Days and the show’s #1 rating. His label secured performing slots on Dinah, Mike Douglas and American Bandstand, but even Happy Days fever could only push the sugary pop single “All Roads (Lead Back to You)” to #97. After three weeks on the charts, Most’s pop singing career was all but over; and to add insult to injury, Anson Williams’ “Deeply” scored four slots higher, peaking at #93 the following spring. Most was a capable, if not particularly exciting singer, with his voice often doubled to give it heft. The productions are more bubblegum than the rootsy rock ‘n’ roll Ralph Malph might have played in his Happy Days TV band, more Kasnetz-Katz or Gary Lewis than Bill Haley or Chuck Berry. The album mixes originals written or found for Most, alongside covers of Bruce Chanel’s “Hey Baby” and Larry Williams’ “Bony Moronie.” The latter provide a lead-in to one of Most’s post-acting sidelines, touring the oldies circuit with the “Doo Wop Rocks” revival show. This is a nice artifact of the spectacular popularity that surrounded Happy Days in the latter half of the ‘70s, and a pleasant, if not particularly memorable musical spin. Essential’s digital reissue may have been remastered from vinyl, as there seems to be an occasional audio artifact – nothing really distracting, however. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

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Pistol Annies: Hell on Heels

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Miranda Lambert shacks up with two girlfriends

With Miranda Lambert having developed a reputation as “a bit of a rocker chick,” her new trio with Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley provides an opportunity to indulge more of her East Texas country roots. The trio harmonizes in tight, veering lines that recall the Andrews Sisters, and trade opportunities to write and sing lead. Signed to Columbia, the production has Nashville production quality, but the backings include steel and acoustic guitar, and only occasionally venture into the contemporary country mold. The trio sings gritty songs of outlaw women leading rough lives of marital discord, family dysfunction, economic drought and bad habits. The latter hits a peak with the excess libations of the superbly not-ready-for-modern-country-radio “Takin’ Pills.” Lambert can’t help but shine, but she’s clearly settled into the group vibe, sharing the spotlight with her friends and making this a balanced showcase of all three Annies’ pistol-sharp singing and songwriting talent. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

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The Rubinoos: Live at the Hammersmith Odeon

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Seminal power pop band live in 1978

Originally released as part of the omnibus box set Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Rubinoos, the band has released this period live performance on its own for separate download. Taped at London’s Hammersmith Odeon on April 1, 1978, the concert shows off the band’s stellar harmony singing, tight guitar rock, super-tuneful songs and broad stage humor. Jon Rubin’s voice (which still sounds great today) is d-r-e-a-m-y, Tommy Dunbar shows off his killer guitar skills, and the band’s rhythm section is dialed in. This was a really tight live unit. Along with their best-known sides (the original “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” a charting cover of “I Think We’re Alone Now” and the pop-soul “Hard to Get”), there’s the rare “Hey Royse,” an a cappella doo-wop cover of “Rockin’ in the Jungle,” and a monumental jam of “Sugar Sugar” that quotes “Smoke on the Water” and “Downtown” before inviting the audience to sing along. The set closes with an unrelenting take on the Seeds “Pushin’ Too Hard” that suggests maybe rock ‘n’ roll wasn’t quite dead… yet. If you weren’t there, this is what you missed; if you were, this is what you heard, and it still sounds sweet. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

The Rubinoos’ Home Page