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Mugison is a weird dude. Of course he is, he’s an Icelandic musician. This is the country that brought us Sigur Ros, Mum and the queen of all things WTF, Bjork. But Mugison is a little different from his decidedly very different musical countrymen. While his compatriots prefer to dabble in the realms of experimental noise, electronica and whatever the hell Bjork is doing right now, Mugison seems determined to keep his decidedly off-center music firmly planted in American-influenced blues rock, making him slightly more accessible than the throngs of batshit crazy artists from the land of puffin. Slightly being the key word, because while Mugison’s latest release, Mugiboogie, is pretty bluesy, it’s still pretty damn weird. The title track, for instance, buries the blues riffs behind a sea of wacky keyboard sounds while the insanely freaky “I’m Alright” pairs up a soundscape of near-random noise with a shocking example of Cookie Monster death metal vocalizing by Mugison, who otherwise maintains a cool, slightly throaty, blues singing style through most of the album. When it all comes together, though, it works beautifully, the best example being the brilliantly abrasive “Jesus Is a Good Name to Moan,” in which Mugison angrily demands his girlfriend tell him who this Jesus guy is and why she’s yelling his name while they do it. Yeah, that may sound funny, but there is no humor in the surprisingly dark and powerful tune. Other highlights include the anti-government “The Animal” and almost-metal “Two Thumb Sucking Son of a Boyo.” This is one wacky album. Fans of Beck and Soulwax should definitely take note of this Icelandic kook. (Ipecac Recordings) |
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There’s contemporary blues, and then there’s just blues. Maybe in the late 1960s, Moreland & Arbuckle would have been considered “contemporary blues,” contending with Savoy Brown and Johnny Winter for their share of a young electric blues audience. But in 2008, they’re “just blues.” And that’s definitely a good thing. No synthesizers, no importing of exotic beats, not even one single attempt to cater to an audience outside of the blues. This is the real deal – raw, unadulterated, electric blues – guitar, harmonica, and some drums to add some backbeat. Or in some cases, as on the obligatory woman-done-me-wrong song “Tell Me Why,” just an acoustic parlor guitar and some vocals for an intimate, stripped down Delta feel. Guitarist Aaron Moreland and vocalist/harmonicat Dustin Arbuckle stick to the basics here, and they do it so well, with such confidence and power, that one has to consider this record a blessing to the soul of modern music. 1861 reminds us once again that less sometimes truly is more. (LABEL: NorthernBlues 2008) |
 A so-called summit of music festival minds has gotten together and will be bringing a new event to the U.S. this summer. The people behind Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits have teamed up with British officials behind the Reading, Leeds and Glastonbury Festivals to head up a new festival called Vineland Music Festival. The event will take place August 8-10 in Vineland, New Jersey, but no acts have been announced yet. Pop artist Kylie Minogue has apparently put her health problems behind her, and will head out on tour beginning in May 2008 in support of her tenth and latest album, X. The album has been released in the UK, but will not be available in the States until early 2008. Mr. Prolific, otherwise known as Ryan Adams, has announced West Coast tour dates along with his band The Cardinals, in support of their new EP, Follow The Lights. Earlier in 2007, Adams and his band released Easy Tiger, which Time Magazine called a “career breakthrough.” This guy just doesn’t slow down. Here are the upcoming tour dates (more…) Filed under: Rock and Pop and Alternative and Hip Hop and Concerts and News and Blues and Lollapalooza Comments: None |
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Guest contributor: Una Persson
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To prep you for our upcoming interview with Tom Jones, here are a few of the man’s performances to get you, shall we say, in the mood. First, let’s start with a live performance…his last-ever for the late, great “Top of the Pops”…of his 2006 collaboration with Chicane, “Stoned in Love”: Here are a few videos you may or may not have seen… …as well as a few covers you might not have heard him perform… “St. James Infirmary” (with Jools Holland on piano) …but, of course, we must close with an all-time classic, which sounds almost as good in 2007 as it did when he recorded it in 1965: Filed under: Rock and Pop and Jazz and Concerts and Songs and Artists and Blues and Videos Comments: None |
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As they seem to do every summer, the Dave Matthews Band will hit the road and perform for their very devoted fans. The tour kicks off July 8 in Bridgeview, Illinois and the 36-date affair will run through early October with shows at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Tickets for the public go on sale April 21. DMB is also hard at work on a new album due out before the end of this year. Scott Weiland’s latest project, Velvet Revolver, will hit the road in support of its latest album, Libertad, due out in June. The band’s US tour will kick off May 4 in Hollywood and run through May 22 in New York City. While UK sensation James Morrison is touring with John Mayer and Ben Folds in the States, he also will headline a few shows of his own here. The first of those is July 19 in Boston and then another on July 28 in New York. Stay tuned to www.jamesmorrisonmusic.com for details. The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder will headline the upcoming Hullaballo benefit show for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music. Flea of the Chili Peppers founded the Conservatory to help low-income students afford lessons and instruments. The show is set for May 5 in Los Angeles. Classic rock mega-band Rush will hit the road for its Snakes & Arrows World Tour beginning June 13 in Atlanta. The tour runs through October 29 in Finland. For complete information please visit www.rush.com and to pre-order a copy of Snakes & Arrows with a chance to meet the band, click here: |
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THIS is supposed to be a list of the 200 definitive albums of all time…? Please. THIS is nothing more than a collaborative effort between a bunch of suits at the various major labels who want to sell some more copies of their back catalog titles rather than spend money on promoting new, up-and-coming artists, so they’ve teamed up with all the big music retailers and said, “If you stock them, they will buy them.” Disgusting. Filed under: Rock and Pop and Alternative and Rap and Country and News and Artists and Blues and Lists and External Music Comments: 4 Comments |
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There’s a show airing on PBS stations around the country right about now that every music fan should check out, particularly if you enjoy history as well. It’s called “Soundies,” and its topic is stated outright in its title. Soundies were, as the title of this post indicates, the precursor of the music video. The Mills Novelty Company created a refrigerator-sized machine called the Panoram, which was essentially a video jukebox, and these soundies - three-minute films of various musical artists performing their hit songs - could be watched on the Panoram in groups of three. (It was early technology, of course, so you couldn’t fast-forward or rewind; if you wanted to see the last soundie on the reel, you were stuck watching the first two as well, whether you wanted to or not.) The soundies began in 1940 and started off as a roaring success, but World War II caused the Panoram business to stumble - the war effort necessitated a slowing in the manufacturing of new machines - and by the time the armistice had been signed, it was too late; the era of the soundies was over by 1946. But, wow, who knew how many video artifacts from those six years were still out there…?
Fans of jazz, country, pop vocalists of the ’40s, and even early R&B will find their jaws dropping at some of this footage. You’ll see performances from Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Les Paul, Kay Starr, Fats Waller, Spike Jones, the Mills Brothers, Merle Travis, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Doris Day, and even a young Liberace. The stock line about soundies is that while the most popular white artists tended to be under contract to other studios and were therefore unavailable to make soundies (there’s an interesting story about how Mel Torme’s group, the Meltones, did a soundie with another member lip-synching Mel’s vocals because Torme himself wasn’t contractually permitted to appear on camera), there were plenty of black artists who were more than willing to get in front of the camera in order maximize their exposure…and it’s so awesome that they did. Actually being able to see Fats Waller kick out the jams on the piano is pretty damned sweet. There are also some interesting choices of talking heads brought onboard to discuss the soundies; in addition to new interviews with some of the folks who actually made them, like Les Paul and Kay Starr, we get commentary from Joe Franklin, Hugh Hefner, jazzmen George Duke and Wynton Marsalis, and…Stan Ridgway? Oh, it’s not so strange; didn’t you know that he recorded an album of standards a few years back? (If not, you will soon…when we discuss The Best Albums You’ve Never, Ever Heard. Check back at Bullz-Eye in early April!) You can check out the official website for “Soundies,” but I’m led to understand that in addition to future airings, there’s talk of releasing it on DVD. Fingers crossed that that’s true; there’s a lot of stuff here that’s worth watching over and over again. Filed under: Pop and Jazz and Documentaries and News and Blues and Videos and External Music Comments: None |
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Be sure to check out my review of the recent Black Keys show at the Avalon in Hollywood, CA. Filed under: Rock and Alternative and Songs and Artists and Blues and Playlists and External Music and Get to Know Comments: 1 Comment |
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Relating to the Spotlight Kid’s fine posting below, one should also be aware of a highly disturbing article which appeared on the always-fair-and-balanced Fox News website last week about the album. What’s worse is that there’s nothing in it that really surprises me… Record Biz Crisis: Top 20 Misses 750K The top 20 pop albums sold fewer than a total of 750,000 CDs last week. You read that correctly. The actual total was 738,211. The number includes 220,000 copies of a greatest hits singles collection from all the labels, “Now That’s What I Call Music! Vol. 22.” Without “Now 22,” regular releases came in around 500,000 copies. This is a crisis that no one acknowledges in the record business. But consider that recently dismissed Sony execs Donnie Ienner and Michelle Anthony were making $2 million a year, and that their income is typical of upper echelon management in any record company. If the half million CD sold at full price — $15 — then they didn’t even pay for a small part of one salary. Consider also the execs at radio conglomerates, who have tightened playlists so that few new records are played unless — as identified by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s findings — stations receive free trips, gadgets and other gifts as inducements. You might wonder how any of the companies on either side can afford to stay in business. Consider that last Tuesday, “Now 22” was not the only new release. Sony/Epic issued a new CD by writer-producer Butch Walker, a performer whom this column has extolled over and over. Not only did no one from the company bother to send it here, this reporter only learned about it by accident — yesterday. Walker, who should have a following from his extensive touring — he produces and opens for Avril Lavigne. But he’s been ignored by his label and radio. What’s he supposed to do? The CD sold fewer than 15,535 copies — the minimum it would have taken to hit the top 50. And here’s an amazing statistic: four songs from the new album have been played a total of 200,000 times on Walker’s MySpace page. I doubt this is the work of one person who clicked the links that many times. Some group of people is interested in Butch Walker. They’re just not a group that his label or radio stations are interested in, apparently. If they were, there would be more of an investment in Walker’s career — and other countless talented artists like him — by the record companies. Instead, the record stores are empty, and customers are drifting toward other entertainment. There isn’t a lot to look forward to right away in terms of new releases: Rapper DMX has a new album on Aug. 1, but his last one was three years ago. Rocker Tom Petty’s waited four years to put his new CD, and the last one wasn’t exactly a bestseller with fewer than 350,000 copies sold. Yesterday’s crop of new releases has only one promising title, by Los Lonely Boys, whose previous album sold 2 million copies. All eyes will be on them to see if they can beat their last first week sales record: 4,000 copies. That shouldn’t be too hard. Or Music, a satellite label from Epic, sticks with their artists the way most labels do not. Filed under: Rock and Pop and Alternative and Electronica and Rap and Hip Hop and Country and Jazz and Music Labels and News and Artists and Blues and External Music Comments: 2 Comments |
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80-year-old blues legend B.B. King lost his young dog, Lucille, when she was in the care of King’s manager, Matthew Lieberman, who apparently left a gate ajar. To encourage the safe return of Lucille the dog, King is offering one of his signature “Lucille” guitars, complete with autograph, as a reward. King is also presumably looking for a new manager with adequate gate-keeping skills, but is not offering a reward for that position. Meanwhile, alleged dog molester Natasha Lyonne said that she had not seen King’s small, white, perky, extremely affectionate young Maltese. |