Tag Archives: Rock

The Five Americans: Western Union/Sound of Love

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Second album from Dallas-based ‘60s pop-rock hitmakers

This Dallas-based quintet broke into the Top 40 with their bluesy garage rocker “I See the Light” in 1966 and followed the next year with their biggest hit, “Western Union.” Both songs were group originals, which was a trend that continued on this second album. The title track is a catchy pop-rocker with bouncy bass and drums, tight harmony singing and an unforgettable falsetto hook. The rest of their originals are organ and guitar-based with light arrangements, terrific vocals and the occasional country tinge. Highlights include the harmony-rich ballad “Now That It’s Over,” the folk-rock “Sound of Love,” the fuzz bass and beat heavy “Reality,” and the Ohio Express styled bubblegum bonus track, “Lovin’ is Livin’.” The album’s three covers are more interesting for their range of material than their actual performances. “I Put a Spell on You” (written by the album’s producer, Dale Hawkins) suggests the Animals, but isn’t as heavy, nor as sinister as the Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Worse, the vocal on Roger Miller’s “Husbands and Wives” sounds like a goof rather than a finished take. Sundazed has done a tremendous job re-mastering this into a surprisingly crisp CD. Casual listeners might be better off with the group’s Best Of, but fans will relish this full album reissue. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Western Union
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The Skip Heller Trio: The Long Way Home

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Country, country blues and country rock

For those who know Skip Heller from his jazz, lounge and exotica music, this Americana outing come as something of a surprise. His pedigree reaches back to mid-90s work with Les Baxter, Robert Drasnin and Yma Sumac, and a string of organ-centric albums that includes the trio’s two previous outings, Along the Anchorline and Mean Things Happen in This Land, jazz titles like Fakebook, and the exotica Lua-O-Milo. But there’s another side to Heller’s career to be found in the rockabilly sides he’s produced for Dee Lannon and Ray Campi, and work with Wanda Jackson, Dave Alvin and Chris Gafney. Given these latter connections, this album of country, country blues, and country rock, isn’t at all without precedent.

Heller isn’t shy about his roots influences, as his songs strongly echo the styles of Tom T. Hall, Merle Haggard and John Hartford. He writes heartbroken songs of falling for the wrong woman and being left behind by the right one. He adopts a sad-sack tone that perches on the edge between hope and bitterness for the opening “I Used to Love California” and cops the vibe and guitar riff of “Ode to Billy Joe” for his stock taking “At My Age.” He imagines Duke Ellington’s inglorious latter-day gigs (“it was a gas money gig at a high school in some tiny town in central PA”), rediscovers the post-Katrina New Orleans, and worries about loving a married woman.

His subjects are imaginative and fresh, and though he’s not a gifted vocalist, he can be effective. What he lacks in vocal refinement he more than makes up with his guitar playing. The echoed electric guitar solo on the closing “Tracy Lee,” is just one example of how delicious his playing can be. A pair of blues, one led by Robert Drasnin’s clarinet and the other strummed on guitar, connect his country and jazz backgrounds, and touches of DJ Bonebreak’s vibraphone hint at his lounge work. With his fingers in so many musical pies this release didn’t draw the attention it deserves. Heller is a sophisticated songwriter and musician whose roots-oriented work seems to be overshadowed by his productions for others and his reputation as a jazz player. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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Butchers Blind: One More Time

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Rootsy pop and Americana from the wilds of Long Island

Butchers Blind is a Long Island duo formed from the ashes of the little-known Double Stops. But if these three debut tracks are any indication, Pete Mancini (guitar, vocals, keyboards and lap steel) and Brian Reilly (bass) will soon be making a name for themselves. Their melodies are ingratiating in the way of fine pop records, and Mancini is a vocalist whose vulnerability holds you from the first word. Having borrowed their name from a fictional underground, unsigned band in Wilco’s “The Late Greats” (from 2004’s A Ghost is Born), it’s no surprise that Butchers Blind sounds a bit like Tweedy and company, but more the earlier alt.country darlings than the later shape-shifters.

Perhaps they aspire to the range that Wilco’s adopted, but for now, Mancini and Ross offer music that brings to mind another cult band, Big Star. Their productions have hints of the luxurious sheen John Fry captured at Ardent, with a warmth in their music grown from similar roots. The title track adds Steve Mounier on drums, creating a fuller rock band sound, while the B-sides drift more languidly on guitar, piano and bass. “Something Missing” is a lovely slice of melancholy heartache, and “My Worst Enemy” doesn’t give away whether it’s accounting with a wayward mate or a stern bit of self-loathing sung to the bathroom mirror. Either way, Mancini sells the emotion and the title hook will rattle around your brain for hours.

Mancini and Reilly have produced surprisingly complete tracks as an overdubbed two-piece, but it’s hard to imagine they could reproduce these sounds live without a drummer and a second guitarist or keyboard player. Still, these demos show what Butchers Blind would sound like as a band, and though these weren’t produced for commercial sale, one could imagine them appearing as-is on the band’s debut. All that’s needed is for somebody to sign them up. In the meantime, even though, as per Wilco, “you can’t hear it on the radio,” you can enjoy the group’s first three productions and say you knew them when. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | One More Time
MP3 | My Worst Enemy
MP3 | Something Missing
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Various Artists: Rock ‘n’ Roll Bell Ringers

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Period covers of ‘50s rock and R&B

The modern-day music market teems with cover albums featuring past-their-prime artists attempting to re-create their hit singles; there are often passed off with misleading cover art that fails to indicate these are re-recordings. But once upon a time covering other people’s hits was more of an art form, adding dashes of new creativity even as the copy rode the coattails of someone else’s stardom onto the charts. These twenty-six singles were originally released on the Bell label as covers of 1950s R&B and rock classics, with band arrangements that are polished and expertly played. A few of the top-line names, such as Sy Oliver, Edna McGriff and Jimmy Carroll will be familiar, as will be some of the ace New York session players, including Billy Mure, Al Caiola and Charlie Shavers.

The song selections will be familiar to anyone who’s heard a ‘50s hit collection, but the singers will mostly draw question marks. Jim Brown won’t make you forget Chuck Berry as he sings “Maybellene,” but hot guitar licks and a rousing sax solo signal that there’s top-flight talent on board, and Edna McGriff’s version of Lee Hazelwood’s “The Fool” is more hit parade than Sanford Clark’s rockabilly original, but it still packs a punch. The low twang, heavy sax and rolling piano of Jimmy Carroll’s “Big Guitar” fits into the Las Vegas Grind genre, and though Johnny Newton never became a household name, he sounds right at home on the Impalas’ “Sorry (I Ran All the Way Home).” The album closes with Tom & Jerry (soon to be known as Simon & Garfunkel) covering Jan & Dean’s pre-surf hit “Baby Talk.”

The Bell label specialized in quickie covers sold at a low price; but even in their hurry to beat an original single to the charts, they lavished a surprising amount of attention on these recordings. The arrangements, bands and recordings often outstrip the talent of the singers they could round up, but there’s a quality to these sides, and an authenticity of era, that greatly surpasses the middling results of current labels recreating 50 year old hits. These are no substitute for the originals, but given the mechanics of the record industry at the time and the passage of decades, they’ve gained an historical patina that elevates them beyond cheap knock-offs. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Nathan Holscher: Hit the Ground

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Ragged and moody singer-songwriter Americana

Nathan Holscher is proof that you needn’t be in Nashville or Austin to produce Americana. Holscher grew up and was schooled in the Midwest, and after bouncing around the Southwest ended up in Cincinnati, a city long ago known for the hillbilly records issued on the King label. Roy Rogers was born in Cincinnati, and Pure Prairie League formed in Columbus, but more recently the Queen City has turned out soul acts such as Bootsy Collins, the Isley Brothers and Afghan Whigs, and garage/indie rock from the Greenhornes and Heartless Bastards. So it’s without a lot of recent local roots music history that Nathan Holscher drops his third full-length album, populated with dark, downtrodden country and folk songs.

These songs are more anguished than those on two previous outings, 2004’s Pray for Rain and 2007’s Even the Hills. Holscher’s earlier work was agitated and even chipper, but his latest band, Ohio 5, builds more atmospheric arrangements from drums, piano, guitar, bass organ and pedal steel. His ragged vocals sound pained and heartbroken as he catalogs the emotional wreckage of a doomed engagement, with growing doubts strewn along the road trip of “Along the Way.” He tries to prolong broken relationships and on the ‘50s-styled ballad “Only One” hopes for a lover’s change of mind. Holscher sounds crushed as he chokes out an ex-con’s pining on “Seven Years,” and the title track’s frustrated jab at a drug addicted friend feels as fated to fail as the addict himself.

Obviously this isn’t your feel-good album of 2009, but the slow, moody productions provide the right backing for Holscher’s dissipated vocal style. He comes across as intimate and confessional, but he sings as someone exhaling his troubles at the end of a long and trying ordeal rather than as a storyteller trying to make an explicit point. He describes his work as letting “the song steer the ship,” and the results seep out as circumstance rather than drama. It’s precisely that casual reveal of character and storyline that makes this release arresting. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Along the Way
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Elvis Presley: Elvis 75- Good Rockin’ Tonight

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4-CD anthology shines as brightly as a King’s crown

Elvis was not only the king of Rock ‘n’ Roll (Little Richard’s claim on the crown notwithstanding), but in his afterlife he has also become the undisputed king of reissues and anthologies. RCA’s four-CD set, spanning from his earliest self-funded acetates through late home recordings and live sides, his last major studio works and a post-mortem remix, offers no new tracks for Presley’s legions of collectors, but provides a superb introduction and deep overview for anyone who’s heard about, rather than heard, the King. Those who know a few hits or have sat through an Elvis movie or two will find the greatness of his musical catalog measures up to the hype and explains the dedication of his most ardent fans.

Collected here are one hundred tracks, beginning with Presley’s very first recording, “My Happiness,” waxed on his own dime as a gift for his mother. His earliest commercial sides show how he forged hillbilly, blues and country roots into his personal strand of rock ‘n’ roll, first for Sun with Scotty Moore and Bill Black, and then, with the addition of D.J. Fontana on drums and A-list guests like Floyd Cramer and Chet Atkins, for RCA. These early works aren’t so much primitive as they are elemental – the lack of production pomp or circumstance presents Elvis as an unadorned and raw rock ‘n’ roll spirit. The addition of a backing vocal trio, as can first be heard on 1956’s “I Was the One,” showed a crooning side of Elvis that would continue to reappear even as he continued to explore rockabilly and blues.

From the 50s through the 70s Elvis moved through a variety of producer’s hands and a number of different studios, and got something different from each. His studio recordings took him from Memphis to Nashville, north to New York, west to Hollywood, back to Nashville where he worked in RCA’s legendary Studio B and back to Memphis for his legendary late-60s sessions at Chip Moman’s American Studios. By the early ‘70s, on the heels of his televised comeback special, Elvis once again became a live draw, and selected sides find him in Las Vegas, Honolulu and on the road in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Elvis waxed his share of clunkers, but with each new direction and in each new setting he seemed to record something worthwhile, and producer Ernst Mikael Jorgensen has done a masterful job of picking highlights.

More importantly, Jorgensen has intermixed iconic hits with lesser known singles and album tracks, showing the depth of Elvis’ artistry and the catalog he created. Elvis often overwhelmed the charts with hit singles, leaving terrific performances such as the energized “One-Sided Love Affair,” a bluesy cover of Lloyd Price’s “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” and the gospel “Thrill of Your Love” to languish as album tracks. Even more surprising is a 1962 version of “Suspicion” that pre-dates Terry Stafford’s hit by two years. Elvis’ soundtracks included their share of dregs, particularly as the ‘60s wore on, but they also included hits and great album tracks like a scorching version of “Trouble” from King Creole and bluesy covers of Dylan’s “Tomorrow is a Long Time” from Spinout and Jimmy Reed’s “Big Boss Man” from Clambake.

While other artists reinvented themselves to fit the times, Elvis bent the times around himself (excepting “Yoga is as Yoga Does,” thankfully not included here), staying true to his voice as everything around him changed. His producers, songwriters, and musicians kept turning over, but in the center of it all Elvis sang a surprisingly straight line from ’53 to ‘77. Even as his voice matured and the productions were influenced by his Vegas stage show, the fire in his delivery remained. Whether singing rock, blues, country, soul, pop or gospel, his performances found a true line stretched from the Sun sessions through RCA studios in Nashville, New York and Hollywood, a stint in the army, a catalog of often mediocre films, his 1968 resurrection, a triumphant return to Memphis, and country sessions that brought him back to his roots.

For many listeners, disc four will be the least familiar. Covering 1970 through 1977, these selections find Elvis’ singles charting lower, but still delivering the goods. Only “Burning Love” made the top-5, and his other top-10 from that stretch, “The Wonder of You,” is not included. “An American Trilogy,” is at once bombastic and utterly show-stopping, his version of “Always on My Mind” made the country charts but should have found cross-over success before Willie Nelson ten years later, and his last single, “Way Down,” though given to ‘70s production sounds, finds his gospel fervor undimmed. The beat heavy remix of “A Little Less Conversation” that closes the set shows just how easily Elvis’ voice could slide into new contexts (the original film performance from Live a Little, Love a Little is worth searching out on DVD, by the way). These hundred tracks aren’t a complete run through every Elvis highlight, but they tell the entire arc of his musical career in a compelling and thorough way.

The box includes an 80-page booklet that features a biographical essay by Billy Altman, numerous photos, reproductions of original record labels, covers and picture sleeves, movie posters, master tape boxes, and detailed recording, chart and personnel data. RCA/Legacy is releasing a companion 26-track single disc that cherry-picks this box, and though it may prove useful as a guide to further Elvis purchases, it doesn’t provide the compelling, detailed portrait of this four-disc set. With more Elvis 75th-birthday anniversary reissues on the way (and a terrific 2-CD version of From Elvis in Memphis already out) you may be tempted to put together your own collection, but you’d have a hard time assembling a more compelling introduction than this box. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Deer Tick: More Fuel for the Fire

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A four-song sampler from indie rock/Americana quartet

The Americana sounds of Deer Tick’s debut, War Elephant, and the heavier dose of rock ‘n’ roll on last year’s Born on Flag Day are both repeated on this 4-song EP, as are John McCauley’s impassioned, rasp-edged vocals. The opening “La La La” suggests Gram Parsons, with pedal steel, piano and clacking drum-rim percussion giving this song a loose-jointed sound that’s more don’t-care than full-on despair. “Dance of Love” is powered by an urgent shuffle beat, and the guitar-driven “Axe is Forever” suggests a ‘50s instrumental before McCauley’s vocal gives the song an early-‘70s edge. The closing “Straight into a Storm” is a ‘50s-styled rock ‘n’ roller recorded on-stage in Charlotte, NC, but without the sonic finesse of the group’s Daytrotter live session. You can hear Deer Tick’s greatness in the three studio tracks, but this is more a resting place for fans waiting on the band’s next full length than an introduction. Those unfamiliar with the band’s catalog should start with their two full length albums. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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OST: Pirate Radio

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OST_PirateRadioThe better-known sounds of 1960s UK pirate radio

Ever since George Lucas built American Graffitti around its ever-present soundtrack, filmmakers have used vintage music as a shorthand to quickly evoke a specific period. In this film’s fictionalized version of 1960s UK pirate radio, the nostalgic selections are in many ways the central character. Driven by monopolistic, government controlled radio’s narrowness, daring entrepreneurs anchored ships outside territorial waters where they could beam their signals back to the Emerald Isles. Those radio waves were stocked with fresh, daring new artists that the BBC wouldn’t touch. Forty years later, the music on this 2-CD, 32-track collection may seem quaint and familiar, but it caused quite a stir at the time.

While the Beatles-led British Invasion suggests that musical travel was all in one direction, the heavy dose of U.S. rock and soul sides heard here suggests otherwise. There are many U.K. flag bearers among the pirate radio favorites, including the Kinks, Who, Troggs, Hollies, Tremeloes, Procol Harum and Moody Blues, but also a rip tide of U.S. acts whose impact returned the favor, including the Turtles, Beach Boys, Martha and the Vandellas, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and Otis Redding. Star acts like the Rolling Stones are missing (no doubt due to licensing cost), but more importantly are the lesser known British acts that gave pirate radio its local flavor. The one nod in this direction is the Bystanders’ version of “98.6,” which shadowed the bigger international hit by Keith on the UK charts.

British favorites like Sandie Shaw, the Pretty Things, Small Faces and Ivy League, and dozens of other acts that never made a big dent in the American charts would have given this set a deeper feel for the pirate radio charts. The stations’ breadth is suggested in Herb Alpert’s “This Guy’s in Love With You,” but even that doesn’t capture the freedom of a station like Radio Caroline that used Jimmy McGriff’s version of “Round Midnight” as its theme song. The lead-off cover of “Stay With Me Baby” by the throwback vocalist Duffy seems to be an attempt to draw attention to an album of 45-year-old music, but with Lorraine Ellison’s searing period original also included, the flavor-of-the-month cover is superfluous.

The track selections stay too close to the mainstream to really demonstrate pirate radio’s unique contribution to the airwaves. The lack of radio continuity – jingles and DJs – further obscures the actual sound of the pirates. There are moments of musical discovery here, such as Chris Andrews’ ska-influenced “Yesterday Man,” Jr. Walker and the All Stars’ dark instrumental “Cleo’s Mood,” and aforementioned tracks by the Bystanders and Lorraine Ellison, but the core tracks are well-worn totems of mid-60s rock and soul. For U.S. audiences, these songs American top-40 hits, so while they’re great listening, they don’t really say anything particular about UK pirate radio of the 1960s.

If you enjoyed the songs in the movie, and you don’t already have a deep collection of ‘60s classics, you’ll like this soundtrack. If you want to hear a broader, more Eurocentric range of pirate radio music, get a copy of 101 Pirate Radio Favorites, Rockin’ With the Pirates, or We Love the Pirates. Or better yet, create your own compilation from the vintage playlists on Caroline and London’s websites and add some continuity from the CD Pirate Radio Jingles Sixties. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Los Straitjackets: Yuletide Beat

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LosStraitjackets_YuletideBeatLos Straitjackets rock the holiday classics, instrumental style

What says “The Holidays” more than a primo wave of tremolo guitar and a rockin’ backbeat? If you’re the masked men of Los Straitjackets, nothing says Christmas better than super-stoked versions of holiday classics. They first rocked the holidays with their 2002 release ‘Tis the Season for Los Straitjackets, but this time out they’re melding iconic melodies with the rhythms and riffs of iconic rock instrumentals. “Deck the Halls” takes on the rhythm guitar signature of “I Fought the Law,” and “We Three Kings” is given the buzzing, single-string treatment of Dick Dale’s “Misirlou.” Los Straitjackets translate “Oh Tannenbaum” into the Latin instrumental “Que Verdes Son,” give “Joy to the World” the Stax treatment, borrow the opening riff and guitar styling of “Buckaroo” for “Jingle Bells,” and play “O Come All Ye Faithful” as if the Tornadoes broke into “Telstar” at the company Christmas party. This is a fresh spin from start to finish, and will add some much needed rock ‘n’ roll spice to your holiday music carousel. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Pauline Kyllonen: Pauline Kyllonen

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PaulineKyllonen_PaulineKyllonenCountry-rock and folk-Americana from B.C. singer-songwriter

Pauline Kyllonen is a country-rock singer from British Columbia whose 2008 debut EP opens with a gutsy rocker that favorably recalls ‘70s belters like Ellen Foley and Genya Raven. Yet it’s ballads that appear foremost on Kyllonen’s song list, as the original “Rainbow Café” drops the romping electric guitar of the opener for pedal steel and a moving lyric of small town stasis and a life that’s passed by. She sings sweetly, reaching into her high register for the folk-jazz “Like a River,” bring to mind early Joni Mitchell, and closes with a ballad whose heavy drums and low organ match the power of her singing. Kyllonen is served by solid arrangements that keep her strong voice and lyrics front and center. If Nashville were still interested in three chords and the truth, “Rainbow Café” would have already been snatched up by one of its current hitmakers. As it is, this four-song EP is a good introduction for listeners and a great calling card to the lucky label who eventually signs Kyllonen. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Rainbow Cafe
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