Category: External Music (Page 18 of 50)

Ween: The Friends EP

September 22, 2008 / R. David Smola

A lot of critics embraced La Cucaracha as a return to form for Ween. That same enthusiasm was not shared by this writer. That album sounded as if Dean and Gene were just trying too damn hard to be the lampooning geniuses that their fans expect them to be. It didn’t work. This EP, which features a re-mix of the title track (a different version appears on Cucaracha) is a brilliant return to form and hits the Pet Shop Boys mark that the first version missed. You can just see the disco ball and roller skates as this one pumps delicious synthesizer and drum machine beats through the speakers. The dance floor silliness continues through “I Got to Put The Hammer Down,” a cute little ditty about a drug dealer. They capture a fun reggae vibe on “King Billy,” which is the exact opposite of the irritating “The Fruit Man.” “Billy” features a synthesized keyboard lead that sounds like half bug zapper and half fart machine. “Slow Down Boy” is a merger of the arty pop of 10cc and the sentiment of J.D. Souther. This is the kind of fun and fucked-up innovation we have come to expect from Ween. It’s a great return to form, even if it for less than 20 minutes. (Chocodog)

Ween My Space page

CD Reviews, External Music

Steal This Song: Medeski, Martin & Wood, “Free Go Lily”

September 20, 2008 / David Medsker

It’s embarrassing to admit this as the senior editor and supposed leader of Bullz-Eye’s music section, but this is the first song by Medeski, Martin and Wood that I have ever heard. You’d think that I would have accidentally heard one by now – and who knows, maybe I have – but once you take a position like this, and the publicist emails start coming in, it’s very easy to lose track of what you should be listening to, as opposed to what you are listening to. Heck, I still haven’t listened to Supergrass’ new album, and I love Supergrass. Right now, I have to focus on the new Jack’s Mannequin to get a review ready for next week, and man, am I disappointed with it so far. So sterile, and way too whiny. But that’s another story for another day.

So a rep asks if we’d post a new track from Medeski, Martin and Wood, and I say “Hell yes,” because it’s about time I heard something from them. They were lumped in with the HORDE tribe early in their career, and since I don’t listen to many (ahem, any) of those bands, I just tended to avoid them. This song, “Free Go Lily,” though, is pretty fun, like something Vince Guaraldi would come up with while jamming with some friends and a case of scotch. The band’s new album, Radiolarians I, hits shelves September 30. I, for one, am looking forward to hearing more.

Medeski, Martin & Wood – Free Go Lily

Downloads, External Music, Jazz, Rock, Songs

Uriah Heep: Wake the Sleeper

September 18, 2008 / R. David Smola

Wake the Sleeper, the first new album from classic rock dinosaurs Uriah Heep, is a solid but unspectacular and ultimately unnecessary record from a band desperately trying to prove they can still rawwwwwk! This new effort by Deep Pur-…um, it sounds a lot like a Deep Purple record due to the excessive use of a Hammond organ and the Ian-Gillan-with-a-touch-of-David Byron vocals of Bernie Shaw, the longest-tenured singer and sixth overall (but only the fifth to appear on record). The first track, “Wake the Sleeper” is a noisy song that features a bunch of sound crammed into a small space blasting into your ear. The organ, the noodling guitar, the kinetic drumming accompanied by some ominous background vocals all seem to be competing for the spotlight, as opposed to individual instruments complementing each other. The other songs are decent; the problem is in the mix. The record suffers from ‘too much in too small of a space’ syndrome with the mid range so crammed your ear has no room to breathe. Producer Mike Paxman did not harness the band into a cohesive unit – instead it sounds like a bunch of competing parts. On the bright side, new drummer Russell Gilbrook carves out his own identity in taking over for longtime drummer Lee Kerslake. They are excellent musicians and a fine unit, it just doesn’t translate through the material and production. The Sleeper should go back to its slumber until a better producer can be located. (Universal)

Uriah Heep My Space page

CD Reviews, External Music

Ry Cooder: I, Flathead

September 17, 2008 / Lee Zimmerman

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Ry Cooder’s artistic ambitions have always driven him to be an archivist of sorts, from his earliest days as a session player serving a wide array of A-list artists, to his initial solo efforts retracing the blues and on to his later forays into world music, including the groundbreaking collaboration with Cuban musicians that birthed the universally acclaimed album by the Buena Vista Social Club. More recently, Cooder’s musical explorations have veered closer to home while remaining no less eclectic. Consequently, I Flathead completes his so-called California trilogy that began with Chavez Ravine and My Name Is Buddy, an album cycle which spans the underlying influences that steered the state’s native sounds, from rock ‘n’ roll and rockabilly to the feisty sounds emitted from its barrooms and barrios. Country still claims the most attention here – as evidenced in the titles “Johnny Cash” and “5000 Country Music Songs,” each of which references initial influences – but rock, ragtime and mariachi music also add to the mix. The deluxe edition adds a 96-page narrative that further underscores the premise (a group of guys racing in the salt flats and a fictional band of vintage variety) but whether the songs serve the story or vice versa is really no matter. An album driven by ambitious intents, I, Flathead is a new milestone on Cooder’s journey of rediscovery. (Nonesuch 2008)

“Ry Cooder MySpace page“

CD Reviews, Country, External Music, Folk, Rock

Gus Black: Today Is Not the Day

September 16, 2008 / Lee Zimmerman

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Gus Black has always purveyed a terse subterfuge, a sound that has its foundation in singer/songwriter tradition and blanketed by thick atmospheric ambiance. This is, after all, an artist who pared down his handle to Gus for his first couple of releases, dressed an early album cover almost entirely in black and then drove the point home by including a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid.” If Black’s last album, Autumn Days, suggested an idyllic aside, his latest, Today Is Not the Day enforces the fact that dark days are indeed here again. Black could make Elliott Smith and Jeff Buckley seem positively radiant by comparison, and, title aside, a cover photo of him emerging from the shadows, gun pointed towards the listener, offers no small hint of foreboding. These are songs cloaked in hushed, haunted circumspect and nocturnal rumination, melancholy, shoe-gazing melodies from a dark cellar where the sun rarely intrudes. It leaves the listener on the fringes, although a pair of songs – “Blood And Belonging” and “Little Prince Town” – suggests Black could be a little more embracing if he wasn’t so bent on introspection. (Cheap Lullaby 2008)

Gus Black MySpace page

CD Reviews, External Music, Pop