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Marnie Stern: Marnie Stern

October 6, 2010 / James B. Eldred

RIYL: Hella, Steve Vai, Sleater-Kinney

Marnie Stern’s wackshit crazy combination of Van Halen-style guitar fingertapping and riot grrl rock really came together on her ridiculously named sophomore album that I will refer to in shorthand as This Is It. So much so that I named it the fifth best album of the decade. Now she’s back with her third album, which forgoes a marathon title and is just self-titled, thank God. Typing out that last one was a mother).

This Is It was an album of all peaks. Not only were all the songs amazing, but they were all manic explosions of emotion. Blistering combinations of lightning guitar work by Marnie and frantic breakbeats by Hella drummer Zach Hill with Marnie’s bizarre yet endearing stream-of-consciousness lyrics created a dream/acid-trip experience that was one of a kind. This album isn’t as insane as that, but it’s still pretty damn nuts. The biggest change is that Marnie actually slows things down this time around on tracks like “Transparency Is the New Mystery” and in the closer “The Things You Notice.” The down-tempo is jarring at first, but what the slower songs lack in energy, they make up for with melody and complexity.

The quieter numbers are the exception though, as most of the songs, like the awesomely-titled “Female Guitar Players Are the New Black” are trademark frantic and manic Marnie. “For Ash” is a track especially worth noting. A memorial to an ex who committed suicide, it has all the power, energy and emotion of any song on This Is It times a hundred. Maybe that’s why Marnie Stern isn’t as over-the-top as the previous album – she blew all the energy on that one track. Still, when the worst you can say about an album is that it’s only almost as good as an album that was one of the best records of the decade, that’s not much of an insult. (Kill Rock Stars 2010)

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Raul Malo: Sinners & Saints

October 6, 2010 / Jeff Giles

RIYL: The Mavericks, Roy Orbison, Texas Tornadoes

Raul Malo is an awesomely gifted vocalist and musician, but his solo career has been long on quantity (seven albums in less than a decade) and short on quality control. Too often, his solo albums have given the impression that Malo’s years with the Mavericks wore him out – he’s been content to coast with covers projects, like 2006’s syrupy You’re Only Lonely or 2007’s country-focused After Hours, or specialty-market releases like The Nashville Acoustic Sessions and his Christmas album, Marshmallow World and Other Holiday Favorites. All of which have been fine, in their limited fashion, but nowhere near as exhilarating as those Mavericks records. Without a band to push him forward, it sounded like Malo was happy to keep things at a pleasant, undemanding drift – 2009’s Lucky One, which packed a dozen Malo originals and hearkened back to his days as one of country’s most exciting young performers, seemed like a pit stop between covers projects.

It’s a pleasant surprise, then, that he carries over some of that spirit with Sinners & Saints, a largely self-penned collection that Malo calls “as much of me as I’ve ever put on a record.” It’s brief – ten tracks and under 45 minutes – but its abbreviated length keeps Malo from indulging his weakness for drawn-out ballads, and the result is the loosest, most energetic studio album of his solo career. Recorded with a stellar supporting cast (including Augie Meyers and Shawn Sahm), Sinners highlights the breadth of Malo’s talents, with hints of pop, rock, country, and Tex-Mex in the mix – but it’s also a focused affair, an album where even the longest songs (like a six-minute cover of Rodney Crowell’s “‘Til I Gain Control Again”) feel lean and tightly arranged.

Raul Malo once seemed destined for superstardom, but his career lost momentum in the late ’90s, and Sinners & Saints probably isn’t going to change that. It does, however, prove that this once-prolific songwriter still has some gas left in the tank, as well as plenty of his old passion for playing in the borders between genres. The faithful will be pleased, and if you’ve got a little room in your musical diet for a restless troubadour with the voice of an angel, it just might make you a fan. (Fantasy 2010)

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Music Can Make You Feel So Much Better

October 4, 2010 / Music-lover

When you listen to music, how does it make you feel? For a lot of people, music affects their mood pretty strongly. If you play sad, depressing songs, they’ll start to feel down and drug-out and tired. If you play something upbeat and happy, it can be a great mood lifter, even if a person was feeling depressed before the music started. Some people are affected by music more than others, but almost everyone identifies with at least a song or two in some way. Whether it’s a love song they first heard when they met their spouse or a ‘lucky’ song they heard while they were winning big on one of the sports betting sites, music matters to most of society.

Whether you make music or just listen to it will be affected by your level of talent, but also by what you enjoy. Some people just prefer to listen to music, and they don’t want to go through the work that’s required to learn an instrument. It takes time and dedication to play an instrument well, and taking lessons is also often costly. With that in mind, it’s entirely up to you how you choose to express your love for music.

Many more people listen than play, but quite a few do both. Either way is fine, because it’s all about what you like to do in life, and what makes you feel content. If playing music makes you happy you should do it, even if you’ll never be a professional. Likewise, if you prefer to be just a listener, there’s a lot of benefit to just sitting quietly and enjoying your favorite music – or dancing around to something that’s really upbeat.

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Fran Healy: Wreckorder

October 4, 2010 / David Medsker

RIYL: Travis, Travis, Travis

If you’re the principal songwriter and lead singer in a band, you will invariably be asked about going solo. If you actually decide to do it, prepare to be hit with one of the most unfair complaints in all of music: “It sounds just like your old band. Why bother going solo?”

The implication, of course, is that solo albums should sound drastically different than the artist’s day job, and for some, that is precisely the purpose. Most songwriters, though, write like they write, and asking them to change their approach is like asking them to breathe differently. No one ever accused Bryan Ferry of making solo albums that sounded too much like Roxy Music, and no one should be surprised, or disappointed, to discover that Wreckorder (pronounced ‘recorder’), the solo debut from Travis front man Fran Healy, sounds just like a Travis album. If anything, it’s cause for celebration, because it sounds like a The Man Who or The Invisible Band-era Travis album.

Lead track “In the Morning” is a slow-building minor key ballad with a galloping drum beat the likes of which Travis drummer Neil Primrose hasn’t seen in years. “Anything” would fit seamlessly next to anything from the Nigel Godrich-produced albums, and “Sing Me to Sleep,” a duet with Neko Case, trumps anything from the New Pornographers’ last album (and Case’s last solo album, for that matter). “Buttercups” is as perfect a first single for the album as one could dream up, blessed with climbing-falling chord progressions and that signature wave of melancholia washing over it all. Sometimes Healy gets a little too close to the old days, like on the banjo-plucking “Holiday” (it even does the four count intro on the drum sticks that appeared in every other song on The Man Who), but between the hypnotic “Shadow Boxing” and the hilarious, “Flight of the Conchords”-esque “Robot,” Wreckorder shows that Healy still has much to offer while not forgetting where he came from. Good to see you again, Fran. (Rykodisc 2010)

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Random Acts of Listening: The Bloody Good Songs of FIFA 11

October 1, 2010 / Music-lover

Soccer nerds of the land are united by FIFA 11, the video game that has been around since, well, there’s probably someone out there who knows those stats; it’s the soundtrack that we’re really interested in. Yes, it actually has more than English commentators and endless hours of goal-scoring enjoyment. While speaking of a brilliant mix of music emitting from a video game might cause some to initiate “handbags at ten paces”—one of those British phrases for a soccer spat—it’s actually pretty cool. Ambient chill, dance, electronic and rock all hold hands and dance around the proverbial maypole, and the results are such that I added most of the tunes to my iPod.

Discovering this was all purely random, even if my buddy’s game selection was not. The melodies rolled around in my head long after he lost to Chelsea, and I was inspired to search for great music wherever it may lie and that night, even folk music was not refused a chance to emit from my sound system. Check out a few of my personal faves from the game and see what you think. These may be old to you, in which case you may rejoice that others are finding them, or you may be a virgin to them all and are now rejoicing that you’ve discovered them. Or you may hate them all and will stick to your Rock Band soundtrack. Well, at least you tried them. These are all available for download on iTunes:

Trick Pony from IRM by Charlotte Gainsbourg
1977 from 1977 by Ana Tijoux
Don’t Turn the Lights On from Business Casual by Chromeo
Odessa from Swim by Caribou
Rhinestone Eyes from Plastic Beach by Gorillaz
Fire With Fire from Night Work by Scissor Sisters
Ace of Hz from Ladytron 00 – 10 (coming out soon) by Ladytron