Category: CD QuickTakes (Page 96 of 149)

Blue Island Tribe: The 5 Hits of Ecstasy

February 6, 2009 / Captain Capm

You’ve heard this one before. A group of white guys decides to hit the same path that better groups like Sublime walked years before, and do their own take on the reggae/ska groove. It sounds exactly like you might expect. Take that one part Sublime, adhere a bit of No Doubt, and slap on a coat of old-school Chili Peppers, and you basically have Blue Island Tribe. The only problem is that they are as faceless as all the other groups that tried out this gig and never became famous beyond their local sand bar. Luckily, they didn’t try to attack any dub here, and there isn’t a big horn section to goose them along, which may ultimately make them sound plainer than other groups of their ilk. Good enough, but just, and not really worth getting any more excited over than the same band down your own street that’s doing the same thing. (Spark A Fire Records 2008)

Blue Island Tribe MySpace page

Alternative, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Reggae, Rock

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Dana Falconberry: Oh Skies of Grey

February 5, 2009 / Mike Farley

Sometimes new artists come out of nowhere to brighten our day and sometimes they help by painting beautiful images in our heads with their music – be they bright, or be they cloudy and drizzly as Dana Falconberry does on the aptly titled Oh Skies of Grey. Falconberry is an Austin Texas singer/songwriter who moved from her hometown of Dearborn, Michigan a few years back and has been hanging around the camps of Patty Griffin, Peter Buck and Alejandro Escovedo. What you’ll hear in Falconberry is equal parts sultry folkster (Griffin), rainy day alt-popster (Suzanne Vega), and bombastic arrangements that give her songs incredible character (think Laura Veirs). All of this is wrapped up in a neat package and delivered with authority on Oh Skies of Grey, and it’s the kind of moody fare that you stick in your CD player and forget about for a while, or at least until the sun starts peaking through. The best tracks among 12 varied and well-crafted ones are the shuffling, hauntingly sexy “Love Will Never Leave You Alone” and “Flourescent” as well as the unofficial title track, “Blue Umbrella.” (2:59)

Dana Falconberry MySpace Page

Alternative, Ambient, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Folk, Pop, Rock, Rock Babes

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Living Colour: Live August 19, 2005 – The Bowery Collection

February 4, 2009 / R. David Smola

Live August 19 – 2005 – The Bowery Collection is the second live release from Living Colour to be recorded at CBGB’s. The last one, recorded in 1989 (and released 3 years ago), served as an opportunity to work out much of the material that would appear on their sophomore record, Time’s Up. This recording is more of a career retrospective and a love letter to Hilly Kristal, the proprietor of CBGB’s and the one to give Living Colour their initial break. As entertaining as it is to hear Vernon Reid noodle around on his guitar and listen to these tracks which have an energy and passion matched by the sociologically intense lyrics, the buzz is killed by awful sound. Apparently the source of the material is the soundboard from the club, and as romantic as that sounds, it comes off on disc as muddled. The mix is jarring and distracts the listener from the material and performances. The band also sounds disorganized as it labors a bit between songs before grooving into a new one. The material is mostly good, except for the assault on the ears of “Terrorism,” but the sound is so bad, you can flat out skip this release. (MVDaudio)

Living Colour MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Funk, Rock

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Coby Brown: Stars & Curses

February 3, 2009 / Jeff Giles

Building a career as an indie musician is hard enough without having to deal with serious real-world issues – like, say, being diagnosed with cancer – but those are exactly the cards that Coby Brown was dealt a few years ago. To his credit, Brown took his diagnosis in stride, releasing an EP (2007’s Time Is Now) that whetted appetites for his first full-length, Stars & Curses. Happily, Curses delivers on Time’s promise, offering up 10 pleasantly polished cuts of gently woven singer/songwriter pop goodness. Brown’s style isn’t showy – he leads off with the somber-to-a-fault “4th of July,” and on a number of tracks, he drenches his vocals in wide swaths of reverb – but the songs speak for themselves. Fans of artists like Josh Rouse and Josh Ritter will find a lot to love here; Brown’s voice is strong and slightly reedy around the edges, giving the music just enough homespun edge to keep things grounded. Will Golden’s production is another strong selling point – in more commercially oriented hands, tracks like the widescreen “Daylight” and yearning “Madman” would aim for glossy bombast rather than honest emotion. Nothing on Stars & Curses grabs you by the collar right off the bat, but give it time – it’ll grow on you and refuse to let go. (self-released 2009)

Coby Brown MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop

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Andy Scott: Don’t Tempt Fate

February 2, 2009 / Jeff Giles

Andy Rosen received his first major label deal in the late ‘90s as a one-man band called Goat, whose sample-heavy sound offered a mildly sunnier, dancier take on the Soul Coughing aesthetic. Although his 1998 Epic release, Great Life, disappeared with a whimper, the title track resurfaced a couple of years ago in a Kia commercial – and now Rosen himself has popped up again, this time as jazz guitarist/singer Andy Scott. It’s certainly one of the odder musical makeovers in recent memory, but his new incarnation’s debut, Don’t Tempt Fate, doesn’t suck; it’s actually an enjoyably understated collection of minimally arranged originals, performed with understated grace. If you remember “Great Life,” you know Scott isn’t anyone’s idea of a great singer, but he does a fine job of playing to his strengths here, recalling the charmingly weathered vocals of latter-day Bob Dorough, and the whole thing has a nice coffee-shop vibe, good for late nights and Sunday brunches. It’s obviously a passion project, with minimal financial backing, but it’s well worth seeking out for fans of low-key vocal jazz combos – and fans of Scott’s friend Madeleine Peyroux, who pops up here on guitar and ukulele, and delivers a typically sultry vocal cameo on the title track. (self-released 2009)

Andy Scott MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Jazz, Vocal

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