Buke and Gass are a duo that create and modify their own instruments, have a connection to the Blue Man Group and play a hybrid of folk and post-punk....wait, no! Come back!
Their debut record, Riposte has finally got a UK release this month and as usual with these brief intros you can read all about it at The Line Of Best Fit.
Should you be a fan of such creativity/absurdity, read on!
Australians The Middle East have taken the long route round to releasing second album proper I Want That You Are Always Happy. Formed in around 2005 they released first album Recordings of The Middle East in 2008 and promptly split up. They reconvened eight months later and released an EP, essentially a truncated version of the album, containing the wonderful 'Blood'. I blogged about them back in February 2010, in this rather pathetic and slightly embarrassing post. Two years on and we've got the new album, and it's been worth the wait.
The band play what could be best described as alt.country, but there's so much more to the record than just that. Opening with the fragile 'Black Death 1349' and the gorgeous piano-led 'My Grandmother Was Pearl Hall', what's immediate is how Jordan Ireland's vocals have come into their own since those early records. He has a wonderful voice and when it combines with Rohin Jones and Bree Tranter's vocals (the Tranter-led 'Jesus Came To My Birthday Party is a rocking departure from many of the other tracks) it's something truly magical.
There are many fine moments on this record, such as the twanging and Gothic 'Land Of The Bloody Unknown', the barely-there Satie-esque piano lilt of 'Sydney to Newcastle' and the country-rockin' 'Dan's Silverleaf'.
One of the most wonderful moments is the elegiac 'Ninth Avenue Reverie' - "you said that you loved him / but you were just too young...you say a lot of things" - which floats on banjo and gently wheezing accordion. I kind of wish the album finished after this song, it just seems like the perfect way to end a record, left with a smile on your face and a tear rolling down your cheek.
However, there's still the epic 'Deep Water' with some beautiful slide guitar to enjoy, and then finally the clattering 'Mount Morgan End' to cap it all.
What's great is that The Middle East move through genres without the record losing focus, and that's due to the immense talent of the band. I Want That You Are Always Happy isn't a perfect record, but at halfway through the year it's doubtful that you'll find many records better than this in 2011. If they can keep going and not be tempted to break up again, these Aussies might just be at the start of a brilliant new beginning.
Honestly, I really should have reviewed this album ages ago but work and life just got in the way, but Hit After Hit, probably the seventh record created by Sonny Smith, the brains and soul behind San Franciscan garage-pop act Sonny and the Sunsets is well worth taking the time to check out...especially as we ease into summer season.
Smith, who once created 100 fictional bands, the bios and even the songs to go with them (sample name: Zig Speck and the Specktones), is a man with an ear for melody and a catchy hook, and there's plenty to be found on this record. There's a bit of Jonathan Richman in these songs, lots of Nuggets-style garage grooves, and plenty of similarities with the modern group of 60s-influenced acts such as The Fresh and Onlys, Ty Seagall and others.
Beginning with the Standelles-alike 'She Plays Yo Yo With My Mind', Hit After Hit rushes through a bunch of other smashing psych-pop tunes, 'Home and Exile' has what might be the best drums and bass intro to a song you'll hear all year before launching into deliriously infectious call and response, and 'Reflections of Youth' chugs along with VU riffs before adding a sunny chorus.
The marvellously titled 'The Bad Energy from LA Is Killing Me' drones on some seriously bad Roky Erickson vibes, and is a detuned treat, before the unbelievably funky 'Teen Age Thugs' (a name of one of Smith's fictional bands) kicks in and takes us to a sweaty club where the crowd would fug furiously to garage tunes all night long. There's plenty more to choose from before the record ends on the sweetly sad 'Pretend You Love Me'.
With the prolific nature of Sonny Smith it's quite likely he's got about four more records' worth of material to release already, but for now just savour the solid-gold pop nuggets found on this one.
Aye, that's right. You've got the holy trinity of music now from me. First came the album reviews, then the interviews and now....live reviews!
Last Thursday at Glasgow's Captain's Rest 78s Don't Wobble favourites Papercuts played a wee set alongside Big Search and Blood Blood. I was there on behalf of The Line Of Best Fit to review, and you can read all about it by going here.
A disappointing crowd, but a disappointing gig?.....no chance.
London's Three Trapped Tigers have finally, after three untitled EPs, got round to releasing debut long-player Route One Or Die on Blood and Biscuits records.
Being an instrumental band, I amusingly struggled at points writing words for this review, despite actually rather enjoying listening to the mix of math-rock and electro noodling......and you can read the fruits of my labours over at The Line Of Best Fit.
The band produced an ear-bleeding live (and crowd-dividing) set at Glasgow's Stag and Dagger fest, so if that sort of thing interests you, click right here.
I have to confess that I have a lot of love for Okkervil River, so any review I do has to be taken with a pinch of salt. However, about a month since I first heard I Am Very Far, I remain undecided about just how good it really is.
I can confirm it's not as good as Down the River of Golden Dreams, Black Sheep Boy and The Stage Names, but I reckon it's still a damn fine record with some stone-cold killer tunes on it. It's the first non-concept record from Will Sheff in about 8 years, but all the familiar Okkervil tropes remain unchanged. Sheff remains a romantic with a slightly depressive worldview, his lyrics also remain reassuringly oblique and literate, and the rousing folk-rock remains....although as producer Sheff has doubled the sound with two drummers, two piano players, just about two of everything.
Opener 'The Valley' is an energetic start, with Sheff singing once more about rock and roll (as he often does), before 'Piratess' goes a bit Steely Dan. And that, should you need reminding, is a good thing.
'We Need A Myth' is a gorgeous waltz of a song, before 'Hanging From A Hit' delivers what might be Okkervil River's (or Sheff's) most nakedly personal song in a long time, if not ever. It's a tale of reluctant adultery brought to life by Sheff's impassioned retelling, and restrained brass, and it's an emotional punch to the gut - unexpected in the context of the record as a whole, and all the more powerful as a result.
'Show Yourself' is another highlight, slowly building until a chorus of voices sing the title together, taking the melody and lifting it off into the ether. 'Wake and Be Fine' is a rousing single, singalong and triumphant, and closer 'The Rise' is an emotional swell of a song, rising and falling before fading away beautifully.
I Am Very Far isn't perfect; there's a three song lull as you approach the halfway point, but even a very good Okkervil River record is better than the majority of releases you're likely to hear this year. Not quite up there with their finest moments, but a fine old listen nonetheless.
Erika M Anderson, EMA, was once part of none-too-cheerful, anxiety-heavy noisemongers Gowns with partner Ezra Buchla, before the emotional baggage of that band got too much to bear, and she retreated into the shadows to craft the songs found here on debut solo Past Life Martyred Saints. I'm not going to lie here - it's an incredibly uncomfortable and emotionally challenging listen....but it's also a beautiful set of songs.
With songs such as 'Butterfly Knife' and 'Marked' clearly touching on physical abuse - self inflicted or otherwise - this record was never likely to be singalong fun, and Anderson certainly doesn't mind wearing her heart on her sleeve. She intones lyrics like a young Kim Gordon, or Cat Power maybe, and the musical backdrop is high on intensity. It's waves of guitar noise, organ drone and industrial clangs, which recalls some of the dronier moments of Sonic Youth's oeuvre, or the work of Earth's Dylan Carlson, or even the open stringed scratchiness of early Palace Music. There is a folky element to the record, with epic 'The Grey Ship' founded on Viking legend (the single also features a stunning 16minute rendition of a Robert Johnson song).
Anderson's stream of consciousness attack on her adopted home state, 'California' is an astonishing piece of work, funny and touching, and the emotional resonance can be heard in her gasps for breath between some of the lines of the song. If ever someone truly meant the lyrics in a song, EMA lives and breathes every single moment of Past Life Martyred Saints.
There's many other highlights to be found; 'Milkman' is fun noise-rock, and closer 'Red Star' is anxiety personified in song, but the record as a whole is an awesome achievement. To produce art out of personal pain isn't something that's easy or to be encouraged, but if it works as catharsis, then who's to argue with that.
With a return of 5 albums released in 30 years, The Feelies aren't exactly what you'd call prolific, but they are a fine old band. Over at The Line Of Best Fit you can read my review of that fifth record, Here Before. Is it worth the wait?
