The mighty Big Star in their original early 1970s incarnation. L-R: Jody Stephens, Chris Bell, Alex Chilton, Andy Hummel.
More than a decade into the internet age, it's hard to imagine a time when music and the artists who created it carried an aura of mystery. Before information about any topic under the sun was just a few computer keystrokes away, word of mouth was an absolutely vital part of expanding one's musical vocabulary on bands flying below the mainstream radar. It was an era when discovering and sharing underground music brought friends closer together and sometimes made you new ones.
If you ever listened to music on vinyl BEFORE doing so was retro, you know what I'm talking about (and you whippersnappers can just shake your heads and indulge your elders for a few moments here). If you were born before 1975, it's likely that you can not only remember when and with which album you got turned onto a favorite artist, but also fondly recall who turned you onto them.
Apart from the Velvet Underground, there's probably no band who came to more ears through word of mouth than power pop cult heroes Big Star. The Memphis quartet led by songwriters Alex Chilton - who'd been a bonafide pop star as a teenager fronting The Box Tops and singing other writers' songs, including the No. 1 hit "The Letter" - and Chris Bell, never enjoyed much success during their brief initial run in the 1970s, which saw the release of just two albums. Post breakup, however, the band's music was shared and converts were made who, in turn, shared the music and the band's legend grew exponentially. Proof? How many other obscure '70s bands are being given the loving four-disc box set treatment by archivist label nonpareil Rhino?
Kid Sister's long-await debut album Ultraviolet finally hits stores today
As November trudges on towards a much needed Thanksgiving holiday, leave it to Chicago's own Kid Sister to infuse the normally cold and dreary month with some uptempo hip hop. Her debut album, Ultraviolet, finally hits store shelves today, ending months of speculation about just how good this much-hyped album would be. The verdict is out: Ultraviolet is a poppy, catchy hip hop album with plenty of smart, almost mind-boggling flows and rhymes.
Enya is well known as a punchline for any joke about New Agey music for which John Tesh would somehow be an inappropriate substitute. But did you know that she also (apparently) had several songs worthy of selection for a Best Of compilation? I did not. Warner Brothers believes otherwise, and will press am Enya record called The Very Best Of for release on December 1.
Burbank, CA - Best-selling Irish vocalist Enya will release The Very Best Of on Warner Bros. Records on December 1st in the U.S. The album will be released internationally, minus the bonus track "Oiche Chiuin (Chorale)," on November 23rd.
Capturing Enya's beguiling mix of classical choral sounds, Celtic atmosphere, and pop sensibility, The Very Best Of brings together, for the first time, all the highlights of her entire 22-year solo career, from "Boadicea" (off her 1987 self-titled debut) to her international breakthrough hit "Orinoco Flow" (from 1988's Watermark) to the sad serenity of "Only Time," which was adopted as a comforting anthem of hope after 9/11. Along the way, the album visits a remarkable collection of enduring favorites, such as "Anywhere Is," "Caribbean Blue," "Book of Days" and "Amarantine." It also provides something new in the shape of a stripped-down, previously unreleased version of "Aniron" which was featured in Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Rings.
So here was my question: Were any of these songs "hits" in the traditional sense? You may remember hearing a snippet in a commercial or a movie, but does anyone really listen to Enya? Sure, "Orinoco Flow" has embedded itself in our collective consciousness as a musical byword for shitty montage scene, but is it something that should be repackaged as part of a Greatest Hits CD? It did peak at No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100, which is more than you can say for anything else here.
Well, as it turns out, Enya has also sold a hell of a lot of records.
More than any other Irish artist besides U2. Weird, I know. In 1991 (when,
admittedly, I was 11) she released a record called Shepard Moons which sold 13 million records and peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard 200. Yes, she had a hit album with a hit single.
Wanna hear something even crazier? This is actually Enya's second Greatest Hits record -- she also put one out in 1997.
Like I said, Enya may mostly exist as a punchline in the minds of those of us born after 1980ish, but it turns out she she did have hits. Weird, right?
We've been disappointed by sophomore albums by pop rock artists we love before--see Cute Is What We Aim For, Quietdrive--so we were very happy that Michigan-based Every Avenue's Picture Perfect, off Fearless Records, is even better than their solid debut, Shh. Just Go with It. The record is out November 3 and is available for only $7.99 at Target.
The band, who plays Martini Ranch November 11 with The White Tie Affair, shows diversity on the disc with a mix of upbeat tracks and a couple ballads--and singer David Ryan Strauchman even gets a little angry!. Their strength is in catchy tracks, but their slower songs are just as compelling because Strauchman has a gorgeous voice with a lot of range.
Brazilian Bebel Gilberto carries the bossa nova torch orginally lit by her father, the legendary João Gilberto.
It's fitting that All In One, Bebel Gilberto's new studio album, has been released by Verve Records. It's the label that released Getz/Gilberto in 1964, still one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time and the one that launched Brazil's sexy bossa nova sound to international acclaim with the genre's signature song, "The Girl from Ipanema." Of course, the Gilberto in that album's title is bossa nova pioneer, guitarist/singer João Gilberto, Bebel's father.
It's no picnic trying to forge your own musical career in the long, dark shadow of a legendary musician dad -- just ask Jakob Dylan or Julian and Sean Lennon -- but Bebel Gilberto is making as good a go of it as any of her second-generation peers. And she's done it by both embracing and expanding upon the music that's in her blood, encapsulated perfectly in her new disc's updated version of her father's "Bim Bom," one of the very first bossa nova compositions. If any more authenticity were needed, the song also features the playing and singing of Daniel Jobim, grandson of another of bossa nova's founding fathers, Antonio Carlos Jobim.
These fine young men call themselves Yeasayer and will have their sophomore album ready for February 2010
Is it too early to look ahead to already announced albums with 2010 release dates? No, especially when those releases carry the clout of such bands as Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer and Arcade Fire. Vampire Weekend has already teased listeners with a track from their January 2010 LP Contra, "Horchata," while Yeasayer has announced the tracklist for their February release Odd Blood. These may pale in comparison to the recent news of a possible 2010 release for Quebecois rockers Arcade Fire.
The brothers Robinson, singer Chris and guitarist Rich, bring The Black Crowes to the State Fair this Thursday.
Wow, has it really been two decades since The Black Crowes released their debut album Shake Your Money Maker? Just about, kids, that disc dropped in January 1990.
Almost 20 years later, the Crowes are many things to many people, depending on when you came to their party: classic rock revivalists, Southern rock torchbearers, jam band, blues band, rock band, Americana band, etc.
It seems the group has come full circle from their beginnings as Stones/Faces traditionalists -- in the very depths of the hair metal era, mind you -- to being embraced as a true classic rock band in their own right.
And they earned that respect the old-fashioned way, on the road. While the group has never enjoyed a greater presence on the sales charts than they did with their debut, their subsequent recordings have shown increasing artistic depth and garnered them a loyal audience that continues to support their live shows.
Multi-media master. In addition to his musical work with The Bad Seeds, Grinderman and The Birthday Party, Nick Cave has penned screenplays, scored films and just released his second novel.
Things getting better with age is an age-old cliché that rarely holds true for anything beyond the obvious "fine wine" analogy, but we can safely add "Nick Cave's career" to that short list.
Now on the far side of a half-century of life, the last few years have been remarkably fertile creatively for the longtime frontman of The Bad Seeds and we've noted as much here and here.
His creative roll continues apace with the publication of his second novel, The Death of Bunny Munro and White Lunar a double-CD collection of some of his film soundtrack work with fellow Bad Seed Warren Ellis.
Much like Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the fate of protagonist Bunny Munro is never in question in Cave's new novel. With that major plot point given away in the title, Bunny is all about character development and Bunny Munro, a sex-obsessed traveling salesman-cum-lothario, is quite a character. An anti-hero by turns despicable and oddly compelling, he hits the road, as usual, after his wife's suicide, but this time with son Bunny Jr. in tow and the father/son dynamic is explored at length as Bunny Sr. wends his way toward his inevitable end.
Bob Dylan's mystifying new Christmas music album is a confusing concept that makes for a disjointed, bizarre album
Do you hear what I hear? Yes, that is Bob Dylan singing "Little Drummer Boy." October 13 is finally upon us, and that means Christmas has come early for...Christmas music. Bob Dylan's hotly anticipated and much debated Christmas music album Christmas In The Heart hits store shelves today, 6 weeks before Thanksgiving and Black Friday, the time of year when it becomes acceptable to start shifting the focus on Christmas. Christmas music in October is odd enough, but when that music is being sung by Bob Dylan, the result is indescribably bizarre. Yet, here we are, listening to Bob Dylan cruise through such Yuletide hits such as "Here Comes Santa Claus," Hark The Herald Angels Sing" and "Silver Bells."
Singer/songwriter Neil Finn gathered family and friends in his native New Zealand to create and record a double album in three weeks.
A sage singer/songwriter named Willie Nelson once extolled the joys of "making music with my friends" and a younger, but perhaps no less sage, singer/songwriter named Neil Finn obviously got the message.
But instead of heading out "on the road again," New Zealander and Crowded House frontman Finn invited many of his musical friends and their families to his home country and studio to create and record The Sun Came Out in three week's time.
Sony Music
Released under the 7 Worlds Collide moniker (the name comes from a line in Finn's gorgeous CH tune "Distant Sun") it is the second such album Finn's headed up for a charitable cause, this time international poverty relief organization Oxfam. But whereas the first 7WC album found the likes of The Smiths' Johnny Marr and members of Radiohead joining Finn to cover their favorite tunes in a series of NZ concerts and a live album, The Sun Came Out features many of the same cast, and newcomers like KT Tunstall and members of Wilco, on two discs of newly created, original material.
La Roux's eponymous debut has finally landed in the U.S. just in time for her to now take over the world
Mercury Prize-nominated British synth-pop duo La Roux have been making a name for themselves since the release of their single "Bulletproof" this past December. The duo, singer Elly Jackson and dude who does everything else Ben Langmaid, burst onto the scene with their fresh take on electronic music, borrowing synths from the 1980s and adjusting them to perfectly fit in with today's burgeoning music scene. La Roux's music is simple, yet it carries with it a bravado that some bands attain after their third or fourth album. The confidence and swagger of Jackson and Langmaid makes for one effortless and complex electronic music album.
This Christmas album thing is really overdone -- shit, even The Grinch himself, Bob Dylan is doing one -- so it's nice to see a jam band like String Cheese Incident taking their genre's longstanding Halloween traditions to the next level. Like Phish, Colorado's STI likes to play lots of covers at their Halloween shows (though not quite to the level of Phish and their musical costumes) and will release those officially starting today. Among the offerings are covers of The Beatles ("Come Together"), Beastie Boys ("No Sleep Till Brooklyn"), Grateful Dead ("Shakedown Street"), KC & The Sunshine Band ("Get Down Tonight"), and Phish ("The Wedge").
The 2 and 9 disc sets documenting their "Hulaween" shows are culled from several shows and are available pre-sale here. Click below for an Mp3 of the band covering Beck, though not at one of their Halloween shows.
British rock band Muse's first album in over 3 years is well worth the wait for those dedicated fans
Three years seems like a hell of a long time -- especially when the only thing filling the void during that time is a tantalizingly superb album that showcases just how a rock band can reinvent their sound and capture a wider mainstream appeal. Those three years are filled with repeat listens of past albums, quietly anticipating the release of what is sure to be another groundbreaking, genre-defying album. For fans of British rockers Muse, this reality was all too real. The band took three years between 2006's Black Holes and Revelations and their latest album, The Resistance, which hits store shelves today. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but when that absence is shattered by a bombastic, grandeur-filled statement, the heart in question needs nothing more than to bask in the glory of one of rock's truly innovative bands.
BLK JKS offer what they call "African Rock" -- fitting, since the band is based out of Johannesburg, South Africa
I, like many Americans, enjoy my fair share of international music. My tendencies keep me pointed towards countries like England, Sweden, and France that have a long history of bands making it big Stateside. So when a band from South Africa comes along, releases an EP that generates tons of buzz and lands on the radars of those hip to new music, it piques my interest. Johannesburg, South Africa's BLK JKS are the band in question, and the hype surrounding this band is absolutely legit. Their intricate weaving of African rhythmic sensibility with rock guitars blends perfectly over one of the most unique -- if not technically impressive -- albums of 2009.
Oh, and did I mention they will be playing Modified Arts this October?
Sally Shapiro's latest album My Guilty Pleasure lives up to its ridiculously appropriate title
Sally Shapiro is a pseudonym for a Swedish electro-pop act produced by Johan Agebjörn -- an odd revelation at first glance. Agebjörn is at the helm, overseeing the technical side of things while an unnamed female vocalist -- who we are to believe is Sally Shapiro -- provides the project with its driving force -- light, haunting and unmistakably Scandinavian vocals. Sally is what makes her new album My Guilty Pleasure such a simple yet unique offering amid the throngs of electronic pop music -- her vocals are always spot on, yet they seem so damn effortless that it can be unfair to think of how talented a singer she truly is.
When Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard takes up a solo project the results can be stellar -- just look at The Postal Service. So his newest project, a team effort with Son Volt's Jay Farrar (read an extended Q&A with Jay from earlier this summer here), is pretty intriguing. The pair recorded 12 songs for One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur, writing lyrics based on prose from Jack Kerouac's landmark 1962 novel Big Sur.
The record is set for release on October 20, accompanying a feature-length documentary of the same title, in which both Gibbard and Farrar appear.
Gibbard stayed in the original cabin Kerouac wrote about while working on Death Cab's Grammy-nominated 2008 album, Narrow Stairs. Full tracklist on the jump.
Kendal, England rockers Wild Beasts mix pure indie rock with staggeringly amazing falsetto vocals
It's recently come to my attention that there are other blogs out there, Stereogum in particular, who are head over heels for English rockers Wild Beasts. I listened to some of their songs from their upcoming release Two Dancers (out 9/8 on Domino) and immediately fell in love with the band's whimsical, pulsating indie rock. At the center of my obsession is lead singer Hayden Thorpe's absolutely transcendent, rich and deep falseto. It's an intriguing mix that is sure to catapult the band onto the radars of many once Two Dancers is released.
Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs make beautiful music together... other people's music, that is.
Covers albums, by their very nature, are a mixed bag. Not only are their songs usually drawn from disparate sources, but the quality of interpretations varies wildly as well.
Beyond that, the covers album seems to represent a mixed bag for the artists creating them. On the one hand, it gives them a, presumably, fun opportunity to try their hand at someone else's material, but it comes at the price of fans wondering if the artist has run out of his or her own musical ideas. On the other hand, the covering artist must have previously achieved some measure of notoriety with their own material for a record company to believe that enough of their fans would be interested in their versions of somebody else's songs and release the covers disc.
Here's a look at three new all-covers discs by some power-pop notables. All are mixed bags and all are available now.
Between them, The Beatles and Metallica have probably sold something like 5% of all records ever manufactered. So I was pretty excited to hear the sophomore record from Beatles/Metallica mashup band, Beatallica. The Masterful Mystery Tour, slated for release August 2, takes it's name from Metallica's 1986 release, Master of Puppets and The Beatles' 1967 Magical Mystery Tour. It features such tunes as: "Everybody's Got a Ticket to Ride Except for Me and My Lightning," "I Want to Choke Your Band," "Hero of the Day Tripper," and "The Thing that Should Not Let it Be."
Portugal. The Man create another vivid landscape of indie rock, folk and even blues on their latest album The Satanic Satanist
Portland -- by way of Alaska -- indie rockers/genre-mashers Portugal. The Man release their fury of an album The Satanic Satanist today, and the effort is one of polish and whimsy. The band's sound jumps from indie rock to folk to blues with a little taste of soul. However odd it may sound, it's a winning combination that turns The Satanic Satanist from another boring, run-of-the-mill indie rock album into an explosion of creativity, experimental sounds and inspired lyrics. The album starts off with an absolute bang in the form of the song "People Say," foretelling the future of those listeners brave enough to sit down and have themselves a taste of Portugal. The Man's strange, funky fruit.
Meric Long (left) was joined by Logan Kroeber in 2005 to expand Long's solo Dodo Bird project into The Dodos we know today
The Dodos, an indie rock duo from San Francisco, made a splash on the music scene back in 2008 with their second album Visiter. That album landed them on everyone's radar (including mine) and made them a force to be reckoned with in the indie/folk/baroque pop/whatever the hell you want to call it scene. Their newest album, Time To Die, will hit store shelves this September, but the band is doing us all a solid and currently streaming the album now.
The Dead Weather, featuring Jack White and Alison Mosshart, fuzz out audiences with their debut album Horehound
What do you get when you combine The Kills, The White Stripes, Queens of the Stone Age and The Greenhornes? A fuzzy, alt-rock supergroup known as The Dead Weather.
Like Damn Yankees and The Travelling Willburys before them, The Dead Weather are intent on taking over the world with their collective super-rock-powers. The reason we give a shit about this band is Jack White's influence, acting as the drummer for this particular ride through the band's debut Horehound.
Here's the deal with The Dead Weather -- the idea is a noble one, and White's name gives it a foothold in the genre, but it falls short of actually opening any new doors for alternative/rock music (as well as falling short of warranting multiple listens). It is interesting, however, to listen to four talented musicians murder unnatural instruments throughout the course of the album.
Glendale-based deathcore act Job for a Cowboy dropped the new record Ruination Tuesday in the midst of their run on the Mayhem Festival tour that comes through their hometown a week from today.
Though the New York Times praised them in the same paragraph as arty French outfit Gojira, who they toured with ("an Arizona band with a guttural, brute-force sound descended (indirectly) from hard-core punk," the Times said of them) there's no indication JFAC is going prog rock on Ruination, an album that's surprisingly short on riffs. They band lost original guitarist Ravi Bhadriraju, who went back to medical school, and the new guy, a Canuk named Alan Glassman, does an admirable job, but might not have quite found his footing in the group yet.
Lincoln, Nebraska's UUVVWWZ's debut LP starts off promising yet falls short of truly impressing
First and foremost: their name is super lame. Let's just get that out of the way. Saddle Creek recording artists UUVVWWZ (pronounced "double you, double vee, double double you, zee," as described by the band) release their first, self-titled LP this Tuesday, and their ambition is admirable. Unfortunately, UUVVWWZ's polish and direction throughout the album seem a bit misplaced. While UUVVWWZ starts off with quite an impressionable bang, the latter part of the album sputters into 8 minute jams that go absolutely nowhere. However, the effort by the band is at least a fresh, new direction amidst a sea of whiny indie rock -- and quite a blast of fresh air for a label like Omaha's Saddle Creek.
Austin rockers Spoon release three new tracks today with their Got Nuffin EP
It's a pretty slow new release schedule today, unless your name is Rob Thomas, Jeff Tweedy or Moby (or Mephistopheles, for that matter). What I do have to offer, however, is a new EP from Austin indie rockers Spoon. Got Nuffin contains only 4 tracks, yet it is their first new music since 2007's incredible Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. As well, the EP title is in keeping with lead singer Britt Daniel's insatiable need to give goofy little titles to his work (i.e. "Don't You Evah.")What Got Nuffin offers fans of Spoon a nice couple of tracks to hold them over until their next album is released, as well as a few oddball instrumental tracks that feel like grandiose filler.
The principals of the God Help The Girl project, left to right, singer-songwriter Stuart Murdoch and singers Catherine Ireton, Celia Garcia and Alex Klobouk.
God Help The Girl God Help The Girl
(Matador)
So you're Stuart Murdoch, successful songwriter, vocalist and leader of Scottish indie darlings Belle and Sebastian. Your work with the group has made it one of the best-loved bands of the last decade-plus while your songwriting has developed from almost painfully twee and simplistic indie folk-pop to charmingly over-reaching Burt Bacharach-esque pop suites. Where do you go from here? Svengali to a girl group? Well, why the hell not? It made a legend of Phil Spector before he became a convicted murderer...
Murdoch's God Help The Girl project was originally reported to be a musical film -- and it still might be -- but, for now, the official website bills it as a "story set to music" and just the music is being released. It's no rock opera complete with story arch, but the songs do hang together well thematically. They center around awkward adolescence -- much like a lot of Murdoch's work with B&S, several members of which perform on the album -- but presented here from a female perspective. Well, at least Murdoch's idea of a female perspective.
The Gossip's new album -- produced by Rick Rubin -- absolutely soars
Portland -- by way of Arkansas and Olympia, Washington-- three piece The Gossip have had intriguing existence -- thanks to their outspoken lead singer Beth Ditto. Ditto, who refers to herself as a "fat, feminist lesbian from Arkansas" and constantly pushes the envelope of aesthetic appeal -- particularly in these times of dolled up, super-thin female figureheads (just look at her on the cover of British publication Love). The band's 2006 album Standing in the Way of Control finally landed them on indie rock radars, well deserved after the band's previous seven years of quality work. Now, Ditto and company have landed on Columbia Records, working with one of the best living music producers: Rick Rubin. His tutelage has given The Gossip's new album, Music for Men, that luster and polish that only he's capable of. The album is a tight, cohesive offering that prominently displays Ditto's trademark vocals with the band's funky indie rock.
George Harrison Let It Roll - Songs by George Harrison
(Capitol/Apple/Dark Horse)
A great band is always more than the sum of its individual parts and, perhaps, no band illustrates that adage better than The Beatles, arguably the greatest band of all time. You could cherry pick the best songs from each member's entire solo career and still not come up with an album as strong as one of The Beatles' less celebrated discs, let alone Revolver and their other masterpieces.
Of course, having set the bar so unattainably high as a band, it was inevitable that the individual's solo efforts would not reach it... and there's certainly no shame in that, in 40+ years no other group or artist has been able to get there either!
Let It Roll - Songs by George Harrison is not the first compilation of the late, "quiet" Beatle's solo efforts, but it does have the distinct advantage of drawing material from his entire solo career and varying label affiliations. As a single disc of 19 tracks and nearly 78 minutes, it's a tight summation but a great one.
First and foremost, don't be fooled by the fact that DJs Diplo and Switch are the brains behind Major Lazer. Also, don't get caught up in the fact that Santigold is on the lead single, "Hold The Line." Major Lazer's Guns Don't Kill People...Lazers Do is 100% a reggae album. Sure, it features beats arranged by Diplo and Switch, but it also features a plethora of reggae vocals throughout the entire album -- even featuring some unmistakable reggae beats. That being said, Guns is a funky little album, with just the right amount of kitsch and out-there, experimental beats. Even if reggae isn't exactly your favorite genre, Guns is an impressive album -- chock full of polish that both Diplo and Switch have accumulated throughout their prolific careers.
How do you know when your local band has hit it big in Arizona? Just ask Joey Arroyo, who might point to the fact that this acoustic rock quintet is headlining at one of The Valley's top venues next month.
The Marquee Theatre is usually reserved for national acts passing by on a tour, attracting people from all over Arizona, but the Joey Arroyo band, hopes to have no problem stocking the place with folks who might live in their neighborhood when they take stage on July 3rd. They deserve the success, based on what I heard from their debut record.
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