Category: Alternative (Page 45 of 155)

Deadstring Brothers: Sao Paulo

December 8, 2009 /


RIYL: Rolling Stones, Black Crowes, Gram Parsons

Armed with both a rock ‘n’ roll swagger that befits a band from Detroit, and an English retro feel courtesy of a pair of British expatriates, the Deadstring Brothers meld their disparate influences with an intrinsic roots rock insurgence. In fact, on first hearing. the Deadstringers are dead ringers for the Stones, thanks in large part to singer Kurt Marschke’s Jagger-esque slur and moan. And, given the band’s penchant for haggard, bottleneck ballads and a weathered sprawl, a similarity in sound to classic albums like Beggars Banquet, Exile on Main Street and Let It Be becomes all but unavoidable. Toss in the decadent influences of Gram Parsons and a hint of Steve Earle, and the quartet’s synthesis of heartland sentiment and Brit-rock precepts becomes practically seamless.

With that in mind, any sense that Sao Paulo would find the band opting for a marked change in direction via a bossa nova beat or a south of the border flair becomes completely mistaken. The title track bleeds dark desperation, its gaunt, bittersweet delivery finding a comfortable fit with the band’s usual mix of back-alley narratives and sneering arch defiance. The brash rebellion inherent in “Houston,” “The River Song” and “It’s A Shame” affirm the quartet’s antagonistic attitude before ceding the spotlight to the weary circumspect awash in the album’s final trio of entries, “The Same Old Rule,” “Yesterday’s Style” and “Always a Friend of Mine.” The common thread that lingers throughout is an unmistakable sense of disillusionment that embellishes every note and nuance, painting San Paulo as a place most adventure-seekers would probably choose to avoid altogether. (Bloodshot 2009)

Deadstring Brothers MySpace page

Alternative, Americana, CD Reviews, Country, Melodramatic, Rock

Marillion: Less Is More

December 8, 2009 /


RIYL: U2, Simple Minds, Radiohead

It seems a somewhat formidable task to encapsulate two decades of music within the span of a dozen tracks, but Marillion’s latest makes the case that it’s at least worth trying. Summing up the group’s progress following the transition from original singer Fish to current front man Steve Hogarth at the end of the ‘80s, this modest anthology holds together remarkably well, each song segueing seamlessly into the next with scarcely any change in tone or tempo. One can only surmise that that the band is either a stickler for consistency or simply at a loss for new ideas; either way, their sprawling, unhurried sound is as spare as the album title suggests. Songs begin with little more than a few notes on a keyboard or the simple strum of an acoustic guitar before acceding to an underlying, unresolved tension that ripples just below the surface. When the material soars, as with the slightly more emphatic “Hard As Love” or via the bebop rhythms of “If My Heart Were a Ball,” Marillion manage to emulate the plaintive tomes of U2 and Simple Minds. However, aside from the “hidden track” “Cannibal Surf Babe” and a moving cover of Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees” – one of two live bonus tunes – the melodies are somewhat diffuse, showing only a lackluster attempt at capturing a more emphatic sound.

Ironically, when Fish sang with the band during their formative years, Marillion was far more dynamic, though they were constrained by the notion they were simply a poor man’s Genesis. Less Is More suggests the Fish connection is still there, but it’s more like the kind that seeks a hook to hang on. (Eagle Records 2009)

Marillion website

Alternative, CD Reviews, Melodramatic, Progressive, Psychedelic, Rock

21 Century Breakdown: Mike Farley’s Top 10 Albums of the 2000s

December 4, 2009 /

The past decade to me was less about musical trends and styles, and more about how I listen to music. I’ve always been a mix tape guy, and as the ‘90s moved to Y2K, I was entering the world of burning mix CDs. But then around 2004, everything changed, and changed for the better, when I discovered iTunes. Now I could not only make up my own playlists from my music collection, but I could order single songs for 99 cents and add those to my collection. Suddenly I was re-discovering songs from my childhood and teen years, and basically every phase of my music-listening life. And I could arrange all those songs any way I liked…playlists galore and, as I described them, “kickass mixes.” Every four to six months, I make a new play list of what I’m currently listening to, and date that as a new Kickass Mix, something I can go back to that makes me remember what I was doing and feeling at that point in time.

As for the actual music I’ve been listening to and enjoying, there are a few acts that have entered my iTunes world this decade that have become favorites that I can’t get enough of, no matter how many times I listen: The Damnwells, the Silver Seas, Ari Hest, Jason Spooner and Butch Walker, to name a few. I know that radio is basically a shell of its former self and we find and listen to music in so many different ways, but I, for one, have fully embraced the digital world of music.

Here are my picks for top albums of the decade.
1. The Silver Seas: High Society
2. Jason Spooner: The Flame You Follow
3. Ari Hest: The Break In
4. Stereophonics: Langauge, Sex, Violence. Other?
5. The Damnwells: Air Stereo
6. The Southland: Influence of Geography
7. The Damnwells: One Last Century
8. Josh Rouse: 1972
9. Butch Walker: Left of Self Centered
10. Paddy Casey: Addicted To Company

Alternative, iTunes, Lists, Pop, Power Pop, Rock

Steal This Song: Morningwood, “Best of Me”

December 3, 2009 /

Truth be told, I’m a bit shocked that the music press is rather indifferent to New York glam rockers Morningwood. I know they’re not the best band New York’s given the world, but their blend of punchy guitars, perky beats and that force of nature named Chantal Claret at the microphone strike some primal chord in me. Maybe it’s a reminder what what rock bands used to sound like, before they worried about whether they were cool enough, or if they were attracting the “right” fans. What a joke, really. Do you think Cheap Trick ever gave a fuck who was listening to their records, as long as people were buying them? Hell, no.

That’s why people refer to the music business these days as junior high school with money. Sadly, the same peer pressure rules apply to the people who write about bands. They want to be seen as cool, too (probably more so than the musicians they write about), so once a band has the perception of not being hip, the writers tend to fall in line. Case in point: a very well-known blogger told me at Lollapalooza in 2007 that they were surprised at how much they liked Silverchair’s performance, yet they the band down in their column. Oh, the price some pay for hipster credibility.

But not me. I gave that ghost up years ago, and I can’t tell you how much easier things are since I did. Of course, this might make bands reluctant to receive my stamp of approval, since it comes with a giant asterisk – Shit! He’s uncool! Wait, unless it’s cool to not care about being cool. Damn, this is hard – but I’m not high enough on the food chain yet for that to matter. Anyway…

Personally, I’ll take a band like Morningwood and a song like “Best of Me” over the more popular Paramore any day of the week. It’s brief (just a hair over three minutes), it’s catchy, it’s confident without bragging, and best of all, it’s all major keys, so there’s no unnecessary melodrama. It reminds me of Pat Benatar in her ass-kicking days (i.e. before she started her family). And you can have it for free. Dig in. And as an appetizer, here’s the video, which contains a nice callback to the band’s hilarious clip for “Sugarbaby,” which is one of my singles of the year.

To download Morningwood’s Best of Me, click here

Alternative, Artists, Downloads, Pop, Rock, Steal This Song

Pelican: What We All Come to Need

December 1, 2009 /


RIYL: Isis, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Sun O)))

Pelican, by far the most notable instrumental post-metal art rock band named after a waterfowl, left indie-metal label Hydra Head Records last year and joined up with Southern Lord Records, home to such experimental icons as Sun O))) and Earth. So perhaps it’s not coincidental that their first release on the label, What We All Come to Need, is a slight return to more experimental ground. Their 2007 release City of Echoes got some flak for being too “mainstream” due to some slightly more traditional sonic arrangements that were far shorter and more restrained than the epic-length opuses that the band was known for in the past. On What We All Come to Need, the band has seemingly split the difference between the “pop” sound of their last album and the unabridged soundscapes that was their earlier work. While there are no droning 10-to 20-minute epics on What We All Come to Need, most of the tracks hover around the seven-minute mark, giving the listener enough time to get lost in the songs’ dark, melodic world without descending into tedium. That being said, perhaps they cut a bit too much of the fat away. The menacing “The Creeper” and riff-heavy “Glimmer” could benefit from being a little longer, and shorter cuts like “An Inch Above Sand” and “Strung Up From The Sky” never really get a chance to develop. However, tracks like “Ephemeral” show that bigger isn’t always better by pounding its way through your cortex with its thunderous riffs in a scant five-minute running time.

Will the hardcore among the art-metal fans enjoy it? Probably not – it’s still a bit too “traditional” sounding for them. But metal heads who are curious to see what all this “post-metal” talk is about would do good to start with What We All Come to Need, as it’s a perfect bridge between the hardcore droning sludge of groups like Isis and progressive metal such as Mastodon. (Southern Lord Records 2009)

Pelican MySpace Page

Alternative, Ambient, CD Reviews, Instrumental, Metal

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