Category: CD QuickTakes (Page 135 of 149)

Bill Purdy: Move My Way

July 4, 2008 / Jeff Giles

His album artwork looks like an accident and his name sounds like he should be running a Chevrolet dealership in Hogeye, Arkansas, but Bill Purdy is actually a damn fine singer/songwriter – as evidenced by his debut EP, the five-song, self-released Move My Way. He bills himself as “Jack Johnson meets Dr. John,” and that falls within spitting distance of the truth, but if these tracks are a reliable indicator, Purdy has a lot more in common with rootsy troubadours like Martin Sexton. The EP offers a seamless blend of soulful ballads and breezy up-tempo numbers, all of them anchored by Purdy’s keys – he plays piano, Wurlitzer, and B-3 here – and sandpaper-coated-in-honey vocals. The songs are catchy, a little bit funky, and as warm as a Memphis night in July. If anything, Purdy could stand to scuff up the edges of his sound a bit more – his press kit tries to lump him in with artists like Johnson and John Mayer, and it’s easy to see him heading that direction, but no matter how strong the pull of the middle of the road might be, Purdy’s career will be much more interesting if he keeps hanging out in the weeds. Get busy with that full-length follow-up, please. (Bill Purdy 2008)

Bill Purdy MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Rock

From First To Last: From First to Last

July 4, 2008 / Mike Farley

From First To Last is the latest band to walk the tightrope between Warped Tour and Active Rock radio fare. They’ve toured with the likes of Story of the Year and Fall Out Boy, but have a bit more edge along the lines of fellow Floridians Yellowcard. You might think bands in this genre can take other band’s music and put it in a blender to create their own style, and it’s hard to argue against that. But From First To Last has enough songwriting chops to separate themselves from the pack a bit. A lot of From First To Last’s Suretone Records debut is like listening to one long song. But there are a few standouts, and they are all melodic, blazing rockers—“Two As One,” “Worlds Away,” and “Tick Tick Tomorrow.” These guys might be in a crowded genre, but they’re worth keeping an eye on. (Label: Suretone)

From First To Last MySpace page

Alternative, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop, Rock

Hercules and Love Affair: Hercules and Love Affair

June 27, 2008 / David Medsker

It may sound like the ultimate insult to call an album a dance record for people who don’t dance anymore, but let’s face it; most of the people who went club hopping in the late ‘80s simply don’t dance anymore, but they’re going to love Hercules and Love Affair, the collective effort by Andrew Butler and a small army of friends. Ranging from Inner City-style house (“You Belong”) to brooding, Shriekback-ish dark grooves (“Easy”), the album has both Thievery Corporation cool and traditional dance pop sensibilities. “Blind” goes back even further in time, rocking a full-on disco groove, and the sincerity of the performance is as convincing an argument for the awesomeness of early disco as you’ll ever hear. Hercules and Love Affair is, quite literally, groovy stuff. More, please. (Mute)

Hercules and Love Affair MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Dance, Electronica, Pop

Golden Animals: Free Your Mind and Win a Pony

June 27, 2008 / Jeff Giles

How you feel about Golden Animals – and their debut full-length album, Free Your Mind and Win a Pony — will likely have everything to do with how you feel about Jim Morrison and the Doors. Are you a Morrison fan? Well, then Pony will hit you like a peyote button at a desert campfire. If, on the other hand, you regard the Doors as possibly the most overrated band in rock & roll history, then Golden Animals will sound a lot like the low rumble of a slowly opening hellmouth. (And if you’re Ian Astbury, you’re about to spend several months memorizing the words to these songs and waiting for singer Tommy Eisner to quit the band so you can take his place.) Either way, Pony does everything it can to live up to the label’s promises of a “sun-bleached, spare and deeply California desert sound” – and at 11 songs and barely 30 minutes in length, it’s hard to accuse the album of overstaying its welcome. There isn’t an original thought from start to finish – even the artwork strains to evoke the Laurel Canyon wonder years – but that won’t stop a rabid throng of critics from wanking all over it this summer. That these knuckleheads don’t have a scrap of mojo worth rising between them doesn’t matter in the least. (Happy Parts 2008)

Golden Animals MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Rock

Walter Meego: Voyager

June 27, 2008 / David Medsker

You’d be hard pressed to find a genre with a greater POF (Poseur Overload Factor) than the Nouveaux Wave scene, where the majority of the bands equate squawky synths with detached, ironic hipster cool, as if the world needs more detached, ironic hipster cool. (It doesn’t, by the way.) Huzzah, then, to Chicago duo Walter Meego – neither of whom is named Walter or Meego – for putting the song first and going from there. Their debut, Voyager, takes Daft Punk’s poppiest work to its logical next step, matching the bubbliest of pop songs with “Aerodynamic”-style keytar riffs. “Girls” is the clear standout, which a guitar hook the size of an anchor, while the ode to voyeurism that is “Keyhole” has a tribute of sorts to “Aerodynamic” in the solo. If you’re looking for a frothy, fun summer album, look no further. (Almost Gold)

Walter Meego MySpace page

Alternative, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Dance, Electronica, Pop