Category: Artists (Page 85 of 262)

Exene Cervenka: Somewhere Gone

October 7, 2009 /


RIYL: Knitters, Nanci Griffith, Maria McKee

Most artists who are able to maintain any sort of credibility and longevity usually prove adept at the power of transformation, especially when it comes to adapting their style. After all, continuing in the same direction after a decade or more almost inevitably becomes tiresome without at least some tweaking to the standard MO. Never mind the Eagles or Billy Joel; who would have expected Dylan to rail on forever in protest and poetic mode, or that Joni Mitchell would retain her little girl innocence and pensive strum without some further artistic embellishment? Yet even with that basic precept in mind, witnessing Exene Cervenka’s stylistic transformation – from punk goddess with X to the folk loyalist she’s become – still registers as a somewhat drastic evolution. After all, her stewardship of X, one of Los Angeles’ most virulent punk bands, set a standard of sorts for an entire decade of West Coast outrage and insurgency, reconfiguring Southern California’s sunny vibes into a hotbed of rock rebellion easily on par with the Manhattan graduating class of CBGB’s.

Of course, Cervenka wasn’t the only member of X to ceremoniously segue from turbulence to tradition. Both her male counterparts, John Doe and rotating member Dave Alvin, followed the same course, and when Cervenka and Doe formed the Knitters, a down-home revival band powered by unabashed devotion, the stage was set. Cervenka herself has proven to be both durable and diversified, spawning a notable solo career, various side projects and even an impressive literary output. But with her latest venture, the tellingly dubbed Somewhere Gone, Cervenka ups the ante when it comes to back porch ambiance and freewheeling folksiness. With Amy Farris’ fiddle play at the fore, she plunges head first into distinctly rural environs, finding an easy fit in these sing-along settings. Being that this is her first solo soirée in almost two decades, there’s reason enough to believe that she’s naturally more mellow and had ample time to rethink her course, but given the laidback vibe of “Trojan Horse,” “Somewhere Gone” and “The Willow Tree,” it’s actually easy to imagine her perched out in a pasture somewhere, sucking on some straw while contentedly watching as the livestock graze. The ramshackle “Fine Familiar” and rollicking honkytonk of “Walk with Me across the Night” only reinforce that notion.

Still, Cervenka’s segue may surprise those who only remember her through the tinted lens of two decades gone by. Though no longer in the guise of a femme fatale, who would have expected Cervenka would reinvent herself as a country crooner? (Bloodshot, 2009)

Exene Cervenka MySpace page
Click to buy Somewhere Gone from Amazon

Artists, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Folk, Pop

Pugwash: Giddy

October 7, 2009 /


RIYL: XTC, The Kinks, The Beach Boys

It’s hard to believe that a band as talented as Dublin’s Pugwash could have such a low profile in a post-MySpace world – though if we’re being honest, that band name is doing them no favors whatsoever – but expect that to change post haste. Thomas Walsh, lead singer and songwriter for Pugwash, was recently showered with accolades for his work in the Duckworth Lewis Method, a concept album about cricket that Walsh assembled with Divine Comedy singer Neil Hannon. Leave it to the band’s new label head Andy Partridge to strike while the iron is hot with Giddy, a collection of the finest moments from Pugwash’s first four albums. You can tell what Partridge sees in the band – namely, himself. “Song for You” is a dead ringer for Apple Venus-era XTC, and “Apples” is about as perfect a pop song as you’ll find. The unstoppably sunny “It’s Nice to Be Nice” will make Brian Wilson shed tears of joy, but the band isn’t stuck mining ’60s pop gold; “Monorail” out-Beck’s Beck, and look for Kelly Jones and the Stereophonics to cover “Finer Things in Life” in the near future.

Even better, Giddy features material from the band’s forthcoming album Eleven Modern Antiquities, and if the groovy “My Genius” is any indication (that has to be Hannon on backing vocals), it looks as though Pugwash are just getting warmed up. Pardon the cliché, but this is the best pop band you’ve never heard. (Ape House 2009)

Pugwash MySpace page
Click to buy Giddy from Amazon

Artists, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop, Power Pop

Lou Barlow: Goodnight Unknown

October 6, 2009 /


RIYL: Nirvana, Folk Implosion, Foo Fighters

Lou Barlow’s music may sometimes seem to defy definition, but one thing can be said for certain: As one of the more prolific figures of the post-punk generation – if not one of the more deliberately obscure – he’s maintained a steady presence through a variety of guises for the better part of the past 20 years. Starting his musical journey with the influential and irrepressible Dinosaur Jr., Barlow subsequently plied his talents through several high-profile indie outfits, Sebadoh and Folk Implosion among them. Each incarnation has found him mining a sound that’s as daring as it is defiant. Regardless, absolute devotees will testify that it’s in his role as a solo performer that he’s at his most articulate and expressive, and happily, this latest outing proves to be no exception.

Still, as always, it’s hard to get a handle on where Barlow is going with some of these songs. Layer upon layer of foggy melodies, cloudy atmospherics and vocals that sound like they were recorded in distant environs do little to encourage any hint of immediate accessibility. Nevertheless, he frequently connects almost in spite of himself. Shimmering set-ups like “I’m Thinking” and “The One I Call,” along with the lilting delicacy of “Modesty,” “Take Advantage” and “Too Much Freedom,” run headlong into the agitated sludge that blurs the more melodic prospects for songs like “Sharing,” “Gravitate” and “The Right.”

Happily, though, a more accessible sound does emerge as the 14 tracks wind down to their conclusion. Barlow segues into a mellower mode, and if there’s any comparison to be made at this point, it’s genuinely unexpected. “Take Advantage” and “Don’t Apologize” actually sound similar to…wait for it…Donovan, in traveling troubadour mode. Yes, it’s an unlikely shift, but then again, who better to pull off this chameleon-like transformation than an agile artist like Barlow?

Consistently intriguing at every turn, Barlow’s metamorphosis has always demanded a closer listen, and certainly Goodnight Unknown, as its title somewhat cryptically implies, isn’t any different. While Barlow may be edging towards accessibility, it’s clearly too soon to say he’s committed himself entirely to following a standard script. Still, Goodnight Unknown may be the closest he comes to earning any distinction as a higher profile indie rock god along the lines of, say, Dave Grohl, with whom he shares a certain renegade sensibility. Whether or not the current incarnation of Dinosaur Jr. grinds itself into extinction remains unclear, but one thing remains clear – Lou Barlow casts an indomitable shadow all his own. (Merge, 2009)

Lou Barlow MySpace page
Click to buy Goodnight Unknown from Amazon

Alternative, Artists, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Rock

Steel Panther: Feel the Steel

October 6, 2009 /


RIYL: Spinal Tap, Poison, songs about loose women

The emergence of hair metal parody band Steel Panther in today’s musical climate is enough to cause the space/time continuum to collapse on itself. “The Wrestler” showed us that there is an entire generation of people who love hair metal in a non-ironic way (unlike, say, Ellen Page’s character in “Whip It,” who wears her mother’s Stryper T-shirt as a joke), which means that a talented hair metal band has a legitimate shot at scoring a left-field hit.

So what to make, then, of a hair metal band 20 years past the genre’s sell-by date, sporting chops to the heavens…but a juvenile lyrical streak that borders on contempt? That is the conundrum that surrounds Feel the Steel, the new album by Steel Panther, the artists formerly known as Danger Kitty and Metal Skool. There is no question that they can play, and their knockoffs of more legitimate (but no less cheesy) hair metal songs are spot-on (expect Jon Bon Jovi’s lawyers to sue for the royalties to “Party All Day” in 3…2…1…). But hot damn, does the joke get old quickly, and they can kiss any chance of appealing to the fairer sex goodbye with tale after tale of misogyny. If the object of singer Michael Starr’s desire isn’t a hooker (“Asian Hooker”), she’s a stripper (“Stripper Girl”), or fat (“Fat Girl”), a small-town piece of ass (“Girl from Oklahoma”), or just plain ugly (“Turn Off the Lights”). Starr knows no fidelity (“Community Property,” “Eatin’ Ain’t Cheatin'”), dedicates a chorus to the phrase “two in the pink and one in the stink” (“The Shocker”), and finishes the “More Than Words” knockoff “Girl from Oklahoma” with the words “Yeah, suck it, bitch.” Wow.

Steel_Panther_02

All right, we get what they’re doing here. The original wave of hair metal was littered with songs about underage girls, partying, and partying with underage girls, and Steel Panther is simply taking a Zen approach to it all by also addressing the cheating, the drugs, and the sharing of STDs that those guys chose not to sing about. Ha ha, very cute. The problem is that it loses its impact roughly halfway through the album, and the talk of blowing loads, lube, and mimicking blowjob sounds distracts from the band’s better qualities, namely Starr’s ability to impersonate nearly every singer from the hair metal era. (His David Lee Roth is the best, for the record.) Our suggestion: trim the number of songs about, um, trim in half, and focus on other topics, like what a drag it is to have Satan for a master – there is surely a parallel between being one of Satan’s minions and being a teenager with an overbearing dad – or even better, sing about something so far over the heads of most metal acts (quantum physics, for example) that the songs can stand on their own, rather than in the shadows of their predecessors.

Feel the Steel is good for a laugh, but there isn’t anything here that you – or even Steel Panther – will be playing ten years from now. It is purely an of-the-moment guilty pleasure, though it could have been so much more. Pity. (Island 2009)

Steel Panther MySpace page
Click to buy Feel the Steel from Amazon

Artists, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Metal, Pop, Rock

The Disco Biscuits @ Stubbs BBQ – Austin TX 9/19/09

October 5, 2009 /

It’s a triumphant return to Stubbs for the Disco Biscuits on this Saturday night, as the trance-fusion stalwarts had been opening for Gov’t Mule at the same outdoor venue in a co-headlining show this past February. The Biscuits still may not be packing the place, but the fact that the #2-ranked Texas Longhorns hosted a prime-time match-up against rival Texas Tech just a couple miles away at the same time may have had something to do with that.

But Stubbs seeks to let fans have their cake and eat it too by installing large flatscreen TVs at the two main bars so that music fans can also check in on the game, where the Longhorns seek to avenge their only loss of the 2008 season. Bassist Marc Brownstein acknowledges the conflict by thanking the crowd for coming out and wishing the Longhorns well.

The Planet Anthem Tour finds the band breaking out some new songs in anticipation of Planet Anthem, their first album since 2002. The Biscuits are trying an innovative strategy in which they intend to release the album in three EP clusters that will include singles, remixes and videos. The new “Konkrete” opens the show and draws in the crowd with a tale about a strange dream where “myself is out of control.” Brownstein lays down a heavy groove while guitarist Jon “the Barber” Gutwillig turns up the delay on his spacey solo.

“Little Betty Boop” is jamming along with Brownstein and Barber, pushing each other higher when the jam veers into a new direction with “Voices Insane,” where keyboard wizard Aron Magner ups his psychedelic contribution. Drummer Allen Aucoin lays down a tight groove as the guitar, bass and keyboard melodies all mingle to create an ascending wave that gets the crowd moving. The jam later segues back into “Boop,” concluding with another big peak. It’s such skillful interweaving of musical parts that has made the Biscuits a mainstay on the psychedelic jam circuit for the past decade.

But it’s in the huge second set where the band really heats up and shows they could still be growing toward even bigger things. The opening “Rivers” finds Magner setting a cosmic tone, followed by Aucoin’s tight beat. Brownstein and Barber start in tentative, as the band builds the vibe slowly but surely. The group’s singing is never going to win huge praise, but they’ve worked on developing their skills and the vocal melody has a catchy vibe, somewhat reminiscent of the classic “Safety Dance” from Men Without Hats. The jam is in a bluesy minor key direction vaguely recalling the String Cheese Incident’s “Rivertrance,” and there’s a compelling groove that makes the song highly danceable. Magner’s keys bring a very psychedelic vibe while the guitar and bass ascend, bringing the crowd into a collective trance groove.

The band then makes a sharp swerve into the anthemic new “Mirrors” for an instant highlight. The song, just debuted in March, already has the vibe of being one of the band’s all-time classics. The melodic intro grabs the ear with an instantly infectious summertime sound and the vocals have an uplifting, romantic quality – “There’s a future / Life with you and me / I don’t want to give it all away / But it seems I’m here to stay” sings Brownstein. Barber’s melodic lines drive the tune higher, but don’t take it over. The sound and tempo somewhat recall the band’s classic “Home Again,” but in a fresh, forward-thinking way. What was a seven-minute song in March now grows to 14 minutes of pure trance-dance bliss.

How does such a band top such a peak moment? By segueing into a 28-minute monster version of “Basis for the Day,” where the band takes the energy and just rides it. Barber shifts the sound with some auto-wah funk and then the band takes off into a rocking jam. Then there’s a change into an even funkier section where all the members take little solos before exploding into another composed section. It’s the type of extended instrumental jamming that a mainstream pop crowd could never handle, but it’s pure manna to this audience.

The Biscuits tend to bring out a fun crowd that really likes to party, and this evening is no exception. One young gentleman is even triple-fisting with three drinks, as if that is the norm. Upon being complimented on his dedication to intoxication, the smiling fellow manages to juggle all three drinks into one arm so as to be able to exchange a high five and elbow bump, an impressive display of agility to say the least. He later forms a mini-dance pit with his fashionable friends that causes some to step away to safety as if from a mosh pit – one fellow wears a Cookie Monster hat that brings smiles throughout the night, while his female companion demonstrates hippie cool with a fashionable dress, backwards retro Milwaukee Brewers hat, and great dance moves. Unlike some other musical genres where hipster standoffish-cool pervades, there’s a sense here that everyone is amongst friends.

Before the encore, Brownstein thanks the crowd for skipping the football game to spend the night with the band, but congratulates the Longhorns on their 34-24 win and announces that “Texas is my new team… I found my Big 12 team.” It’s hard not to like a team from a town that loves music as much as Austin. The band then delivers an encore, by request notes Brownstein, of “Therapy,” which provides another melodic dose of just that for those who view music as their spiritual sustenance.

Artists, Concerts, Dance, Rock

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