Category: Artists (Page 42 of 262)

The Airborne Toxic Event: All I Ever Wanted: Live from the Walt Disney Concert Hall

September 23, 2010 /

Note: This is a review of the 90-minute documentary film only. At press time, we did not have access to the CD or the DVD of the entire show. Though we hope to, soon.

It’s still baffling to us that Pitchfork would go so far out of their way to bash a band like the Airborne Toxic Event – they gave the band’s eponymous debut album, which we loved, a scathing 1.6 on their 10-point scale – and after watching “All I Ever Wanted: Live from the Walt Disney Concert Hall,” the insult seems twice as offensive. They seem like geniunely good, extremely gracious people, and the way they got the community involved in their landmark show was deeply touching. A local high school band plays on “Does This Mean You’re Moving On?” and a raucous cover of the Ramones’ “Do You Remember Rock ‘n Roll Radio?,” while a school girl’s choir jumps in for a rousing, kitchen-sink version of “Missy.” The band sounds great – the high school band misses a few notes, but hey, they’re kids – and they look like they’re having the time of their lives both performing and recording this show.

If there is one problem with the movie, it’s that it goes for long stretches without any music, and when they do include music, they opt for a cover version (the Ramones, Magnetic Fields, Q Lazzarus) as often as they show them playing one of their own songs. The covers are cute, but the movie could have used more original material. The set includes a separate DVD of the entire show, of course, but if we’re having our music documented for all eternity, we’re going to make sure the majority of the footage consists of original material, not someone else’s. But then again, that’s a very Mikel Jollett thing to do, favoring someone else’s songs over his own. (Island 2010)

Airborne Toxic Event MySpace page
Click to buy All I Ever Wanted from Amazon

Alternative, Artists, CD Reviews, Concert CDs, Concert DVDs, Rock

Me, Myself, and iPod 9/22/10: Wake me up when September ends

September 22, 2010 /

esd ipod

Sorry, disappeared for a while there. I took a week off after Lollapalooza – my first week off in two years, I might add – and I still haven’t caught up on email. I know, wah wah wah, you have too much music to listen to. Hey, I’m just sayin’, there are only so many hours in the day. My kids miss their daddy when I hole up in the music cave, and I miss them, too.

Mackintosh Braun – Could It Be
Man, if only the rest of the record could keep up with this song. In theory, I should love Mackintosh Braun. They make ELO-inspired synth pop, which is as close to my wheelhouse as things get. In reality, I merely like Mackintosh Braun. I think it was the processed vocals that did me in. They have ’em on every track. The record overall is good, and I’m betting they can do better next time around, but if you’re going to take one song of theirs with you, this one, for now, is it.

Chatelaine – Broken Bones (Depreciation Guild remix)
Ah, Toni Halliday. She could sing the phone book, and I’d swoon. Her new band, Chatelaine, is a much mellower beast than Curve, but their album Take a Line for a Walk is a keeper. This remix of the leadoff track is a neat mix of both her past and her present. But mostly her present.

Doppelganger – Breaks My Head
I’m a sucker for those slow-building songs with only a handful of chords. This is one of those songs.

Alternative, Artists, CD Reviews, Downloads, Electronica, Me Myself and iPod, Pop, Rock, Steal This Song

Lucy Schwartz: Life in Letters

September 22, 2010 /


RIYL:Brandi Carlile, Aimee Mann, Jon Brion

Lucy Schwartz’s Life in Letters contains the kind of songs that must make the producers of “Grey’s Anatomy” orgasm. Her music is spirited, melodic, and yet mellow enough to be the perfect accompaniment for the navel-gazing doctors on ABC’s drama. With beautiful harmonies, intricate guitars, subtle keyboards and muted drums, Schwarz’s music is pleasant to listen to, yet it feels like there’s something missing.

Let’s be clear, this is an album full of rich, excellent material. Schwartz’s voice is reminiscent of Brandi Carlisle in its fullness and the way she wraps it around the words. “My Darling” is a haunting opening number that rests in the back of your mind like caramel stuck in your teeth.  “Graveyard” has some wonderful, fun harmonies, “Shadow Man” chugs along like a well-tuned Chevy and “Morning” is a lovely ballad that closes the record.  Everything is pretty and neatly in its place.

Acclaimed producer Mitchell Froom oversaw Life in Letters, and he brings to it the same precision he’s brought to every artist he’s worked with, from Crowded House to Los Lobos to Sheryl Crow. Yet, it feels as if Schwartz’s passion has been tamped down, the reins pulled in, making the record too pretty and too mellow. You keep waiting, hoping, for the moment in which the singer loses her shit and lets out a guttural howl or some throat-shredding scream. Anything to indicate that she’s actually feeling all of the emotions she’s singing about. Life in Letters needs that on a couple of tracks, at least.

Without this type of feeling, Schwartz’s album is like a cup of decaf in the middle of the afternoon: It perks you up, but doesn’t give you a jolt. While Life in Letters has some finely crafted musicianship (especially when listening through headphones), nothing grabs you by the throat, or the heart, and pulls you back for repeated listens. (Fortunate Fool Records 2010)

Lucy Schwartz MySpace Page

Adult Contemporary, Artists, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop, Rock Babes

Chatelaine: Take a Line for a Walk

September 21, 2010 /


RIYL: Annie Lennox, Goldfrapp, Ghost vs Sanne

We’re not sure how this one slipped past us – actually, we do know how it slipped past us; it’s because there are over 30,000 albums released each year, so it’s easy to miss one when you’re not expecting it – but better late than never when it comes to former Curve singer Toni Halliday. Her new band Chatelaine is decidedly different than her former one, opting for string-kissed, mid-tempo meditations augmented with the occasional synth. “Oh Daddy” bears strong resemblance to Annie Lennox’s cover of “No More I Love You’s,” but the rest of the album is less passive, with Halliday singing softer than she did in Curve while maintaining a pointedness in her delivery. “Stripped Out” would have fit in perfectly on last year’s grossly overlooked album by Swedish blue-eyed soulsters Ghost vs. Sanne, and “Shifting Sands” injects a dark synth line as proof that Halliday hasn’t forgotten her roots. Hard-edged techno is a young man’s game, so it makes sense that Halliday would leave those days behind her. With Take a Line for a Walk, Halliday acts her age without caving to soft-focus melodrama, which is as win-win as it gets. (Chatelaine 2010)

Download Chatelaine’s “Stripped Out” here

Chatelaine MySpace page
Click to buy Take a Line for a Walk from Amazon

Adult Contemporary, Artists, CD Reviews, Electronica, Pop, Rock Babes

Mackintosh Braun: Where We Are

September 20, 2010 /


RIYL: Dissociatives, Air, E.L.O.

It’s good to see that there is someone at the major league level who remembers the importance of having a label with a personality, and that someone is Chop Shop Records’ Alexandra Patsavas. If Patsavas has your back, odds are you are a contemporary pop act with an offbeat approach and throwback sensibilities, i.e. you write songs like they were written before Rob Thomas fucked everything up, and this describes Patsavas’ latest signing, Mackintosh Braun, to a ‘T.’ The Portland duo’s debut album Where We Are is blissful synth pop song after blissful synth pop song, filled with breathy, manipulated vocals and washes of sound that envelop the listener like a wave from the oceans of Xanadu. The band could definitely use a second operating speed, but when they’re on, like the fab opening track “Could It Be” and the ringing “Line in the Sand,” it’s damn near irresistible. Most of the album, though, falls into the pleasant-but-slight category, and the robotic vocals leave the proceedings a little cold, but you can tell from the chord sequences that Mackintosh Braun have the right idea. With any luck, they’ll come up with more of those right ideas next time around. (Chop Shop/Atlantic 2010)

Download Mackintosh Braun’s “Could It Be” here

Mackintosh Braun MySpace page
Click to buy Where We Are from Amazon

Artists, CD Reviews, Electronica, Pop

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 Eat Sleep Drink Music

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑