If classic rock radio stations dared to play new music this album would totally fit in their rotation. It has a bit of CSN, Jackson Browne, Big Star, Neil Young and at times even beatlesque. But those stations never play anything new – so this will go unheard by an audience that would love it. Too bad.
I have been a Band of Horses for a while now and it is nice to see them with a subtle shift in their sound. This album rocks more than anything they have done – now we are not talking Slayer rocking – more like Neil Young rocking. The vocals are more prominent and front and center. The arrangements are less compressed – not so foggy and jangly. It is like the boys are no longer afraid to come out from behind the curtain.
How much of this is maturity vs. the influence of legendary producer Glyn Johns I don’t know. But I like it. I have always felt like Band of Horses are a poor man’s My Morning Jacket. With this release they come into their own and they find their own voice – yet it is a friendly sound that should resonate with youthful jam band fans to middle age classic rock fans.
I am so backed up on reviews, but the new Chris Robinson Brotherhood has muscled its way to the front of the pack demanding a first listen response. It was just the beginning of the summer that the first CRB album Big Moon Ritual came out. It has been in heavy rotation ever since and will clearly by on my 2012 best of list.
I was more than satisfied to just be digging the 3-song promo EP of covers I received gratis at the RockNRoll music sale recently. So I was shocked to learn there would be a follow-up to Big Moon Ritual just a few months after that release. I quickly jumped online and ordered the vinyl edition from Best Buy.
Side note: I am embarrassed to cheat on my local record store, but I can’t resist hometown corporation Best Buy – who for now – has free shipping (along with great prices) on all music. They don’t deserve the business – but when you are music addict like myself you will turn tricks with a mega retailer to get your fix.
I was pleasantly surprised when the album arrived today that it was in the 45 RPM format – bravo Silver Arrow Records! Very nice packaging and given the 45 RPM format it is spread across two platters: one white and one black – so cool it forced me to make a unblogged tweet!
So how does it sound? A lot like Big Mood Ritual, but slightly looser. Same band and again produced, engineered & mixed by Thom Monahan. The first platter is taut blues-rock and the second platter is much more ponderous (that is a complement) stoner jam band music. So actually it is a nice combo-platter: side 1 and 2 to get up and side 3 and 4 to get down. I was so blown away by Big Moon Ritual that it will be hard to beat it. This is like just finishing a great novel only to find the sequel is already out – dig in! With Big Moon Ritual it was “the first cut is the deepest,” but The Magic Door is opening that second bottle of wine – your are just now in the mood to enjoy it.
Dylan has been on a slow boil since 1997’s Time Out Mind without a stinker in the bunch. But with Tempest I think he may have minted yet another masterpiece. Dylan has sculpted his phlegmatic growl into a beautiful instrument – think of Satchmo with a sense of irony.
I am really digging the album. It has a wonderful old-timey feel to it. Dylan has absorbed so many forms of folk music that many of theses songs seem like covers. By folk music I mean a very broad term: “old” songs, with no known composers, including jazz, blues, tin pan alley, etc.
I don’t have time to pull together a coherent review – but this has it all: great musical arrangements, great lyrics and then there is the voice. The voice is perfect on this album. The voice is not for amatures – it is like a an Islay Scotch – this better not be your first drink.
The Dakota is yet another legendary Minneapolis music venue that I have somehow managed to avoid. I was at the old location to see McCoy Tyner over 20 years ago. I confessed to owner Lowell Pickett that this was my first visit to the new location (the Nicollet Mall location is going on 9 years) and he dryly responded “It is good you gave us a chance to work out the kinks before attending your first show.”
I first saw Pat Metheny at the Children’s Theater in 1978 (my best guess on the year) and I have been a major fan ever since. Until this week, the Children’s Theater show was the smallest venue I had ever seen him in – this is a large theater kind of artist. So it was an absolute thrill when I heard he was booked at the Dakota.
I love Pat’s latest band dubbed the Unity Band. I also loved 80/81 and the common theme of these two albums is a sax player. When Unity Band came out earlier this year it went into immediate heavy rotation. Pat is for my money the most adventurous, yet accessible jazz artist of his generation. So it is actually a rare treat for him to present his music is a conventional quartet. Pat’s guitar and compositions are so perfect for a horn player it is crime he has cuts so few sides with horn players.
Pat started the show solo with his 42-string pikasso guitar. He played a long introduction to “Come and See” (from the Unity Band album) and after a few minutes the full band joined in. Reed man Chris Potter played a bass clarinet which is an amazing instrument. The rest of the night it was pretty much tenor.
Next was a true thrill for me: “James” from 1981’s Off Ramp. This is one of my all time favorite songs and it was great to hear it reinvented with Chris Patter’s tenor.
The group played another one from the Unity Band album: “This Belongs to You.” This song started off soft and contemplative and then veered off into a completely burning hot Metheny solo.
I already mentioned how much I love 80/81 so it was a goose bump rush to hear one of the standouts from that album “The Bat.”
Next the band did what I assume was “Signals (Orchestrion Sketch).” That allowed Pat so show off his very cool Orchestrion stuff. This get up is to hard to even explain – see Pat’s website for more details.
With that the night was almost over. Pat came back for a solo encore. He teased with a little Pat Metheny Group, but quickly pulled back and traveled more down a What’s It All About route.
Overall an outstanding evening. I did not even get a chance to rave about drummer Antonio Sanchez and bassist Ben Williams. Sanchez is wonderfully strong yet sensitive drummer. Williams is new to me and he seems like a very up and coming cat. I just hope this band stays together for a while and releases more material – this is a fantastic line up that should appeal to both the serious and casual jazz fan.
Here is a great review from the City Pages. Best line: The crowd: White, middle-aged, and rich. Tickets run $50 a pop, so what do you expect, a bunch of dirty-looking hipsters running around? That said, the crowd was into it and fun loving. Two horseshoe-haired men in front of us even went as far as spontaneously high-fiving during a couple of the more epic tension-and-release passages. Consider it moshing, Pat Metheny-style.
In the recent issue of Rolling Stone celebrated author Michael Chabon (Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist that is) wrote about his obsession with 70s jazz/funk/soul. As a side bar he noted 4 essential jazz funk albums. Three of which are in the Catchgroove collection. The missing one is unknown to me – but hey that is OK as I am grateful for the tip.
I am looking forward to the new book, Telegraph Avenue, out 9/11/12 (same day as the new Dylan – WOW what a great day). I loved The Yiddish Policemen’s Union.
I will try to post a link to the article once it is available online. Classic quote: “By 1980, backbeat jazz was dead, and jazz has never come close to regaining its vanished status as truly popular music. But hip-hop remembered. The DJs of black America, having inherited or reconstructed or excavated from dusty crates, like Schliemann at Troy, the lost kingdom of their father’s record collections, discovered in the CTI and Blue Note back catalogs an inexhaustible treasure.”
I have always been a bit embarrassed by my obsession with 70s jazz/funk/soul. That flame of low self-esteem was fanned by purchasing the whole Grover Washington Jr. catalog on near mint vinyl for never more than a couple bucks a piece. Surely only garbage would go that cheap!
Amen Brother Chabon – I have been vindicated. I now proudly compose this blog with a copy of a near mint vinyl edition of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes spinning in the background (To Be True) recently purchased for $2.
When I heard about this “supergroup” and the name Britt Daniels of Spoon was in it I was sold. Spoon is for my money one of the finest rock groups around. I sampled a bit of this on iTunes and it had a real 80s new wave vibe. The rest of the group is Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade and Handsome Furs, New Bomb Turks’ Sam Brown, and Alex Fischel. I can honestly say that means nothing to me. I don’t know any of these guys beyond the Spoon dude.
I rushed out tonight and picked it up at Best Buy for a mere $7.99. I am on my first listen and it is fantastic. It rocks and it discos. I can see myself dancing to this circa 1982. But is just edgy enough to make you feel not too sentimental. It slithers.
On a side note Best Buy is a hot mess, but they currently have free delivery on music – that includes CDs and vinyl. They pretty much have everything too. I feel bad for Best Buy. As a home town company I want them to do well. I am old enough to have shopped at Sound of Music. The need to figure out how to be a special store again. Unfortunately they are nothing special these days – just a messy garage sale with good enough deals that you can’t avoid them.
In summary : if you like Spoon, if you like skinny tie rock, and you believe that the only bands that matter are Velvet Underground fans than this album is for you. This is my first review of an album that I have not even finished listening to once – but hey I am on song 10 of 11 and I love it. The is real, this raw, this is real raw.
Bob has released a preview of his new album (Tempest) coming out 9/11/12: a single “Duquesne Whistle.” Check it out on NPR. The song opens with faint old-time music and then unleashes into a full band swing arrangement. Dylan’s vocals are a wonderful croak. Not harsh, but Louie Armstrong like. Lyrically it is a mystery, but some kind of heartbreak is in the air. The song is both light-hearted and heavy-hearted . If you really want to be baffled check out the video which mixes comic charm and gangster violence.
If you are familiar with Dylan’s late period revival – this is not at all out-of-place. But it does stand out from the crowd. It is a genuinely catch song that demands repeated listening. I am looking forward to the full release.
Thank you Laura Lee for sending me the link a day before bobdylan.com!
This is my favorite CTI Benson album. I picked up this 1979 vinyl reissue (the album was originally issued in 1971) at the recent RockNRoll music sale. I am sure the reissue came about due to Benson’s huge late 70’s success.
Benson’s guitar is as fat and easy to listen as his late 70s heyday, but is not buried in the near disco arrangements of that period. Here Benson is accompanied by an amazing band that included Ron Carter on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. Unknown to me is organist Clarence Palmer and the two percussionist (Michael Cameron and Albert Nicholson).
The guitar, organ, drum trio was a 60s classic and almost a cliché, so it is very unique to have a hall of fame bassist on the session. Ron Carter’s contributions are particularly cool as he extensively adds a bowing technique to the arrangements – almost violin like.
The album opens with a wonderful cover of Miles’ “So What?” which has an almost rock feel. The second side has a beautiful quite song called “Ode To a Kudu.” Closing your eyes you can almost imagine a grand solitary beast on the savanna. The fact that beast’s horn will become an instrument is a bonus. Note CTI also had related label called Kudu that focused on soul jazz.
Very cool album – accessible, yet challenging enough to be interesting.
Kudu:
This album is not that far from yesterday’s entry regarding Matthew E. White and it has me nearly as excited. This has been a great week for somnolent navel pondering beard rock.
The Wall Street Journal’s Jim Fusilli offhanded wrote in a recent article: “…Father John Misty, whose debut disc, ‘Fear Fun,’ is one of the year’s best albums…” Fusilli has very reliable taste so I had to check it out.
Well this is very well crafted album. Although the big PR back-story is that FJM’s Joshua Tillman spent time in the Fleet Foxes, this is not the Fleet Foxes redux. However a Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses or My Morning Jacket fan would dig this. It is a mix of folk rock, beatlesque, beard rock, Jeff Buckley and Gram Parsons.
There is a nice bio on FJM’s label SubPop. Here is a stream of the album if you want to check it out:
Every once in a while you listen to a new album and you are completely blown away. You are reminded why you are on the endless quest to discover music. You are chasing the reward. Matthew E. White’s Big Inner is one of those rare rewards.
Even better is when you discover it on your own. I can’t claim to have discovered this album on my own – I read a short “artist to watch” review in Rolling Stone. There was enough there for me to get off my butt this past Monday and Google “Matthew E. White” and listen to a stream. That was enough to get me to buy the album on emusic when it was released the yesterday. After a couple of listens I loved this album so much I had to order a vinyl edition today!
So what is this? It is a pinch of The Band, a dash of Bon Iver, and a splash of Al Green. This album bows to the south (southern rock, gospel, New Orleans, and Memphis), yet nods to LA (e.g. Brian Wilson to Randy Newman). What most impresses me are the subtle yet over the top arrangements – this is very ambitious without an ounce of pretension: soulful horns, choirs, stings, percussion and fearless of use of stereo.
This is Matthew’s debut album and all I can think of is where the hell does something this fully realized come from? He comes from what appears to be an amazing Richmond Virgina music scene led by who else but Matthew E. White. For a great profile check this article out from the local Richmond alternative weekly.
Reserve a spot on my 2012 best of list for Matthew E. White’s Big Inner.
Axl's Catch Groove 