The UnthanksMount The Air Felice Brothers Felice Brothers
FreeThe Free Story
TreesOn The Shore (bonus disc) Felice Brothers Undress
Lal and Mike Waterson Bright Phoebus
It's all about the folk this week with two significant new entries - one from modern day, one from days gone by.
Firstly The Unthanks make a welcome return with their Mount The Air album which won BBC Folk Album Of The Year in 2016.
I can barely get over how good this album is. It's beautiful chamber pieces are based around gentle piano supplemented by strings and horns. And then there are the sisters' voices too. Completely unique. Sounding both modern and ancient.
Bright Phoebus on the other hand sounds just ancient. It's a very unusual record which is much admired as an underground classic in folk (and wider rock and pop actually) circles. It is dark and haunting (save for a couple of more upbeat country rock numbers and the whimsical opening song Rubber Band).
I've been recommencing some concentrated Neil Young research towards a forthcoming album ranking - as he has about 50 albums to his name and is showing no sign of letting up any time soon (Young's latest Colorado has just come out) this is a mammoth undertaking. Luckily I know a lot of them well already but there are a lot of new ones to wade through too (I gave up purchasing every Neil Young album released around 1985). Despite his Quality Control Department largely going AWOL for much of the new millenium (and for all the 80s) there are some undiscovered gems which will reveal themselves once I finally get the ranking out. Neither of the above really come into that category - they seem very similar to me for a number of reasons - from the guitar rock riffing and basic backing to the chronology (2002 and 2006 respectively) and even the buff brown covers.
A Frank Sampredo-less Crazy Horse provide the backing on the earlier Greendale; for Living With War Young turned to regular recent contributors the late Rick Rosas on bass and Chad Cromwell on drums - both backing bands sound practically the same on these two records. Interestingly when Young toured Living With War he somehow persuaded Crosby Stills and Nash to join him. The infamous "Freedom Of Speech" tour was captured on film:
Van MorrisonIrish Heartbeat Van MorrisonEnlightenment
Felice Brothers Celebration, Florida
4 more Van Morrison albums this week book-ended by a couple of new Felice Brothers albums.
3 of the VM albums are from his "mid-period" if you like -
Days Like This 1995 (his 23rd)
Irish Heartbeat 1988 (his 18th)
Enlightenment 1990 (his 20th)
Oddly I remember Enlightenment was either the first or second CD I ever bought after acquiring my first CD player around about the time this CD was issued - a NAD I think it was (always recommended at Richer Sounds!). I do remember a friend having the first CD player I had seen when I was a student in about 1983, and another friend who owned a music shop in my hometown of Chichester demonstrating Dark Side Of The Moon on one probably slightly before that (actually I read they were introduced in 1982).
The other album I had on CD was Without A Net by The Grateful Dead (not a band who have appeared much at the blog yet, if at all - actually let's see... actually 3 times #22, #23 and #49 all back in 2017).
Enlightenment is easily the best of these 3 Morrison albums with some super smooth tracks including the single Real Real Gone, the title track, In The Days Before Rock N Roll, and the gorgeous So Quiet In Here:
This must be what paradise is like
The Irish Heartbeat one was made with the Chieftains and is obviously more fiddly twiddly traditional, and the other one is more easy listening bluesy, neither exceptional (Astral Weeks is of course exceptional and essential for anyone's collection). When The Felice Brothers released Celebration, Florida (actually a real town developed by the Walt Disney company)the reviews were mixed. Some commentators thought the band had strayed too far from their Dylan/Band ramshackle americana with a more driving rock based format and even some synthesizers. I actually think it's a storming album - the heavier instrumentation underpinned by a driving bass and honky piano may be different but Ian Felice's vocals and lyrics are the same, and the melodies are as strong as ever. Two standouts are the opening track which I love with it's shouted kids' chorus - 12456789 Thousand Fire, fire at the pageant Would everybody calm down please stop shouting Go on the run call 911Calm down, calm down, calm down
Please stop shouting!
and the single Ponzi:
He's the chair of the company
Such a great band, who always surprise.
Yet to get into Favorite Waitress so far but anyone who can write lines like "all I want to eat is Cherry Licorice, I don't care if it sounds ridiculous" is alright in my songbook:
Some treats this week. We spin Beck's latest (although a new album Hyperspace is out later this month) and also The Felice Brothers' latest. Top of the magazine we have two classic albums in the smooth jazz rock form of Steely Dan and Donald Fagen (one half of Steely Dan of course and Donald's first appearance solo at the blog). Centre midfield is taken up by one of Van Morrison's greatest albums and the revolutionary samplefest debut from DJ Shadow.
Steely Dan Aja
Donald FagenThe Nightfly
Van MorrisonVeedon Fleece
DJ ShadowEndtroducing The Felice BrothersUndress
Beck Colors
Compiled almost entirely from samples DJ Shadow's groundbreaking Endtroducing received critical acclaim on its release in 1996. No doubt a technical achievement the fear might be that the means trumps the end, but actually the album is very cohesive and contains excellent tracks of down tempo trip hop.
Of most interest to me the list includes artists Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream and Nirvana, not that you'd be able to tell.
Veedon Fleece is a truly beautiful album. Somewhat over(dj)shadowed by the greatness of its surroundings. Released in 1974 Veedon Fleece was possibly Van Morrison's last great album (for a while at least) following in the footsteps of a run of classics like Moondance, Astral Weeks of course, and St. Dominic's Preview, plus the live double Too Late To Stop Now which came out earlier the same year. It would be another three years before the underwhelming A Period Of Transition would demonstrate a change in style.
Live, human, and dynamic. Richly atmospheric loose-limbed arrangements that parallel ‘Van the Man’s’ tenderly gentle and wildly explosive deliveries.
Griffin Anthony
Veedon though is slow and easy with Van at his most soulful - I don't think I've heard his voice pitched so high on any other album, possibly channelling his Al Green or Marvin Gaye. Where Astral Weeks is stringy and Moondance is brassy, this one is pianoey.
Some artists sing about individual personal feelings, some are more outward looking and will comment on the state of the world and politics for instance. Then you get the uniqueness of an artist like Dylan who tells long dense stories littered with proper nouns (for better or worse Ian Felice is similar). But I don't think I know of an artist whose songs recall such a sense of place.
Often this is implicit,
but sometimes explicit
as in Streets Of Arklow. Arklow is a town on the east coast of Ireland Morrison visited in 1973 (he was living in the US at the time):
And as we walked Through the streets of Arklow In a drenching beauty Rolling back 'til the day And I saw your eyes They was shining, sparkling crystal clear And our souls were clean And the grass did grow
I'm also intrigued what Linden Arden Stole The Highlights means:
Linden Arden stole the highlights With one hand tied behind his back Loved the morning sun, and whiskey Ran like water in his veins Loved to go to church on Sunday Even though he was a drinking man When the boys came to San Francisco They were looking for his life
Morrison described this made up character as "an image of an Irish American living in San Francisco - it's really a hard man type of thing". I still don't understand how he stole "highlights".
Reviewing Van's discography I'm frankly shocked to realise there are 2 albums up to Veedon Fleece that I don't think I've actually heard in their entirety. They being Hard Nose The Highway and His Band And The Street Choir. I don't know how this has happened and I promise to rectify immediately Ed. with a visit to ebay. Sure I'd find these for £3 or so at World of Books or Music Magpie.
Undress is the latest album from The Felice Brothers. The band, being generally media darlings, usually get great reviews for both their studio work and their live shows, and this is no exception. However on initial listens I have to admit I was slightly disappointed. Of the dozen tracks there are 4 or 5 that are up to the Brothers' usual high standards, which ain't bad by anyone's measure, but also two or three that are on the weak side. The balance are literally middle of the road.
The lyrics, mostly from Ian Felice who is often compared to Dylan, are important in the Felice Brothers' songs, and many reviews highlight a shift from introspection to a more outward looking view on the state of our political world such as in the sing-a-long Special Announcement:
I can promise more berries On Blueberry Hill I can promise you this Charlie Parker on the ten dollar bill I'll gather up all the cash Toss it to the birds Burn down the Stock Exchange The Federal Reserve (It's going down) I'm saving up my money To be president
and the title track:
Smell the chrysanthemums Republicans and Democrats Undress Even the evangelicals Yeah, you Lighten up, undress Shake the maracas Everyone's nude on Family Feud Undress Under the mushroom cloud The Pentagon Undress Lady Liberty Crimes against humanity Undress Caesars of Wall Street Brooklyn Bridge Undress Comanche and Iroquois Exploitation, genocide Undress Bank of America Kellyanne Undress Read me the Riot Act Vice President and President French Kiss
Many of the songs on the new album are motivated by a shift from private to public concerns. It isn’t hard to find worthwhile things to write about these days, there are a lot of storms blooming on the horizon and a lot of chaos that permeates our lives. The hard part is finding simple and direct ways to address them.
Ian Felice
However, like Dylan, it's the odd genius line of juxtaposition that delights in Felice's lyrics, like exchanging pleasantries under pleasant trees.
Despite my lukewarm feelings about the album the Felices, to be fair, are a band who have rarely stood still, each release pushing new boundaries which can confuse their fans at first. Here original brothers Ian and Felice are joined by new bassist Jesske Hume and drummer Will Lawrence (third brother Simone left in 2009 - his subsequent output as The Duke and The King and as a solo artist are due an examination at a later date). They've also lost long term fiddle player Greg Farley which goes some way to explaining how this record has taken a step away from their popular ramshackle brand of rootsy americana (never more ramshackle as on the previous release Life In The Dark) into a more polished mainstream rock sound.
The Brothers are touring the UK in January and I also see The Black Deer Festival have pulled off a blinder for next summer:
2 great artists, 6 great albums: 3 from Richard Hawley who I saw last week, and 3 from The Felice Brothers who I am seeing in January. If there was a Desert Island Discs for albums I'd be happy for many months marooned with these six. If I had to save one from the waves it would probably be the eponymously named The Felice Brothers album.
All these albums have featured in the blog before so this week Eddy has taken the unusual step of providing links to previous logs and reviews...
As for the live gigs: Hawley was great with a full on wall of sound guitar rock band. Much of the set was drawn from the psychedelic rock of Standing At The Sky's Edge, and also the new album Further which I have not heard yet but understand is similarly rock orientated.
Richard Hawley, The Dome, Brighton, 18/10/19
As for the Felices I am in slight trepidation as brothers Ian and James have formed a new band with a new direction. It will disappointing not to hear classic romps like Frankie's Gun and Whiskey In My Whiskey but I understand the new album Undress is great too - one due for a very overdue review at Bamyasi Towers.
The Laura Marling album is one of my favourite "nu-folk" (bit of a silly term) albums - one that has grown on me over the years. Good songs, interesting acoustic guitar chords, and a restrained voice thankfully void of those Joni Mitchell like vocal histrionics. Possessing a depth and longevity which I have found lacking in acts Marling has been associated with (Noah And The Whale, Johnny Flynn, Mumford and Sons anyone?) I Speak Because I Can has appeared in this blog several times over the last couple of years and will appear again. It lays claim as her best album; its predecessor Alas, I Cannot Swim is due a deeper dive too. Here's her plot on the tourist map of music...
Listening back now it is difficult to understand why Belle and Sebastian became such indie media darlings. If You're Feeling Sinister is pleasant enough acoustic whimsy which may have been fresh and original at the time (1996) but it's pretty lightweight stuff - a lightweight that is giving further airiness by simple nursery rhyme like melodies, that are echoed by trumpet on several tracks, and lead singer Stuart Murdoch's fey vocals.
I'd pass over this much admired album for the stronger (albeit less well received) follow up, The Boy With The Arab Strap.
More brothers this week - the Palace Bros joining the Felices. This Palace Brothers album actually being a solo acoustic guitar album pretty much from one Will Oldham, better known as Bonnie Prince Billy, plus real brothers Ned and Paul. Also slight and very short, like a few of his albums actually, but there's always quality with Oldham and I don't think I've ever heard a bad album from him: An artist of whom I could invest in many other albums, with confidence of not being disappointed. My personal favourite to date?: Lie Down In The Light.
Continuing to enjoy Picaresque. Having dipped into some other albums from the boys and girls I do conclude, as my friend told me, they all sound very different. This one shows The Decemberists' indie folk side, but I've also heard the band branch out into heavy rock, synth pop and even prog - a multi talented band. I will investigate further albums and examine whether they can really pull off these multiple styles. I suspect Picaresque will remain a favourite and probably their default sound (and I'm pleased I started here).
When listening to Robert Plant's solo music it is tempting to compare it to Led Zeppelin - a comparison Plant himself has been keen to distant himself from via ventures into different styles and collaborations with various world artists (his alternative takes on some classic Zeppelin tunes met with mixed reactions from fans). He has also reportedly been the sticking point in any attempts to reform the band, save for the famous O2 gig way back in 2007 now. However the voice is still strong and still his and particularly when playing with a rock band the comparisons are inevitable. When I hear a track I therefore find myself thinking where would this sit in the pantheon of Led Zep music? Which album would it suit, and indeed would it have been good enough to make any of the albums?
Would any Plant solo music make it on to a Led Zeppelin album?
The answer to the last question is on the whole positive. In both of the albums featured here there are songs that would have been good enough for the mighty Zep - although note that this whole premise is off the mark as both albums consist entirely of covers! Perhaps more valid to say the best performances or tracks are the equal of some Led Zeppelin tracks.
His Band of Joy project is probably Plant's most deliberate and closest approach to past glories (save for the Page/Plant reunions in the 90s).
Band of Joy were originally formed in Birmingham in 1965 with John Bonham (and Dave Pegg, later of Fairport Convention) before disbanding in 1968 without recording any albums (two albums were released by a new version of the band, without either of their Led Zeppelin members, in the late 70s and early 80s). Then Plant himself revived the band's name again in 2010 for this album and a tour, albeit without any of his original colleagues. The preceding country rock Raising Sand album with Alison Krauss came out in 2007 just before the fabled Zeppelin gig. Critically acclaimed it went on to pick up five Grammys including Album Of The Year for 2009. With a preponderance of Nashville session players in Band of Joy's ranks the expectation was for a follow up (further sessions with Krauss herself were apparently on the cards but never came to pass). There are indeed some up beat light touch R&B / country tinged tracks favoured by the mighty Zep themselves in later albums, but generally the album has an intense depth of distorted grungy guitars. There are a even a couple of covers from low-fi Minnestota rockers Low - Silver Rider is a magnificent slow burner which could have come off Neil Young's Zuma album:
Two exciting new entries this week in The Decemberists and The Felice Brothers, plus a return to two artists I tend to group together for some reason although their albums are not necessarily similar: Scott Matthews and James Morrison. Bringing up the rear we take a listen to John Legend's debut album and revisit a perennial favourite - Gram Parson's two on one solo collection GP/Grievous Angel.
The DecemberistsPicaresque
Scott Matthews Passing Stranger
Gram ParsonsGP/Grievous Angel John Legend Get Lifted
James MorrisonUndisclosed
Felice Brothers Yonder Is The Clock
Very grateful for the introduction to the The Decemberists. A friend told me they were his favourite band. I asked which album was the best to get (there are 8) and he said "all of them". I don't get all of anybody these days (once in the past I would collect everything by one artist but nowadays, like reading books, there is only so much time so I try and limit myself to the best). Anyway after a little bit of perfunctory investigation I decided to go for the band's third album Picaresque and what a stonker it is - packed to the hilt with dramatic songs of cow punk and indie folk - a mash of Fairport Convention, The Waterboys, Belle and Sebastian, REM, Tom Waits, The Tiger Lillies and The Felice Brothers. Hear The Decemberists at their most theatrical here:
I won't be getting all 8 but can see me investing in at least half of them.
It's a short leap from The Decemberists to the fantastic Felice Brothers. There are many similarities - lyrical story based songs, fiddles and accordions, ramshackle arrangements, and a charismatic front man with a voice of gravel. If I was pushed to highlight a difference I'd say The Felice Brothers are more roughly hewn diamonds. Yonder Is The Clock (already their 6th as early as 2009) is another excellent album from the Felice Brothers' catalogue. There are plenty of down tempo ballads on this album but the brothers never fail to serve up a crowd pleasing stomp or two. Run Chicken Run fulfilling that role here:
Chickens get no life after death! Who knew?
Gram Parsons' two solo albums of melodic love songs and ballads are conveniently collected on this 2-CD set. Parsons almost invented country rock and the genre is amply demonstrated throughout these 20 tracks which maintain a remarkable standard throughout. For CD collectors this edition is essential for any rock fan, along with Capt. Beefheart's Spotlight Kid/Clear Spot 2-CD edition.
Great singers both, James Morrison and Scott Matthews. The former a bit more souly and the latter more rocky. Two excellent albums that I return to fairly frequently.
Lastly this week comes John Legend's 2004 debut album Get Lifted. As explained in Log #155 I was alerted to Legend through a track in the Tarrantino film Django Unchained, and purchased this record and the follow up Once Again. The latter record grew on me. This one not so much to date. It has a more gospel leaning. Neither records quite reach the peaks of the Django track Who Did That To You?
The fifth album in three years from the Felice Brothers offers more of the same deliriously coruscated Catskill Mountains-rooted, folk-edged alt country. Happily unlike anything to come out of the States in recent years, the five-piece outfit (only three of whom are siblings) boast a distinctively muscular, rough-hewn, dirt-under-the-fingernails sound. It seems drawn not so much from grass roots experience as dug determinedly up from the very subsoil of American music.
It’s voiced in a raucously poetic manner frenetically fashioned from frayed, washed-out vocals, lonesome drunken piano, garage-acoustic drums. Guitars are loud, jangly and electric and steel, as well as whispering, confessional and acoustic. Slicing through it all, there is an accordion that weeps and wails with wild cathartic abandon.
The imprint of Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, and The Band is stamped through.
The imprint of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan (not least in lead singer Ian’s cracked nougat-and-nicotine voice) and the Band is stamped through Yonder Is The Clock like lettering through seaside rock. But that’s Mark Twain, the father of American literature, in the album’s title, his knowingly humorous homespun tropes also no less influential here.
Sailor Song, on the other hand, is pure Tom Waits, albeit after a good gargle. And there’s more than a hint of the mellifluous morbidity espoused by near-neighbour Leonard Cohen in the mournful Boy From Lawrence County.
Joyful moonshine-fuelled delirium that sparks and spits like a cornfield on fire.
Not everything, though, sounds filtered; the feverish Memphis Flu is as close to an authentic tea-chest bass, washboard and hooch-bottle hay barn hoedown as you’re likely to find this side of the Atlantic. And lead single Run Chicken Run proves to be a joyful moonshine-fuelled delirium that sparks and spits like a cornfield on fire.
And beneath it all, a cantankerous disaffection peppers the sentiment, a troubling, treacherous undercurrent that threatens to sweep away happiness and drown dreams. Which just makes The Felice Brothers seem all the more admirable and Yonder Is The Clock all the more treasurable.
Hailing from upstate New York's Catskills Mountains, the Felice Brothers look like their entire approach was based on staring long and hard at the Band's second album cover: Beards, white shirts, hats and ill-fitting suits. The comparisons to Big Pink/Basement-era Dylan are also inevitable. Yet this second album proper from the three siblings and their bass player Christmas (an ex-travelling dice player, apparently) is so chock full of whiskey-soaked, ramshackle bonhomie that it'd be a hard-hearted music critic indeed who didn't succumb to the charms contained therein. The group have somehow taken Americana and wrung out some more good times. It's time to visit the bar again …
Equal parts travelogue, shaggy dog story, drunken lament and filched traditional fayre.
With most of the numbers croaked out by brother Ian, whose vocal chords draw most of the Zimmerman comparisons, this is a collection of songs that are equal parts travelogue, shaggy dog story, drunken lament and filched traditional fayre. They're all captured in gloriously scratchy lo-fi (complete with ambient chat, phone conversations and other audio verite) as befits a band whose last recordings were supposedly completed in a chicken coup on a two-track. And while their first album, Tonight At The Arizona, was a little too same-y when digested in one sitting, this is a much more varied feast.
Like Dylan, their self-mythologising puts them not in the modern age, but somewhere in the early part of the last century. Jaunty, piano-led ballads like Greatest Show On Earth or Take This Bread are lifted by parping brass and rollicking choruses, like a night out in a riverfront bar, filled with unfaithful women and gun-toting men (guns are mentioned in just about every song) bent on drunken revenge. Elsewhere the waltz time of Ruby Mae approaches a Tom Waits-like pathos. Whiskey In My Whiskey sounds like a murder ballad that's centuries old.
Yet all these tales are shot through with a red-eyed humour that sounds as authentic as their beards. This is how they manage to convince the listener. Frankie's Gun! with it's truck driving narrative and wheezing accordion is particularly hilarious. Rather than some studious authenticity, they sound like they're just having a good time. And that's just about the only recommendation you need to seek out this fine album …
A #CheeseAlert apology to start. All Christmas music is tripe. This includes both the sickly pop songs we are battered with in all public places for at least two months before the big day (I'd be mightily relieved if I could be spared ever hearing The Fairytale of New York again, or anything by Slade or Wizard), and Christmas Carols with their piercing singing and questionable lyrics (give me some John Tavener choral songs any day). Is there any decent Christmas music out there? Please let me know! So apologies that I've had to have some topical fayre in the family player just for this week. Just for this week.
~
1. Guildford Cathedral Choir - The Christmas Carol's Album
2. Richard Hawley - Truelove's Gutter
3. John Grant - Queen of Denmark
4. War on Drugs - A Deeper Understanding
5. Various - Resident Sampler #10
6. The Felice Brothers - Tonight at the Arizona
~
So on to the proper music:
Still loving Richard Hawley's Truelove's Gutter album. A true masterpiece of understated gorgeousness - probably his best album.
Four new albums this week courtesy of Santa (and Resident Music):
John Grant
Last May I was lucky enough to catch a surprise solo gig by John Grant at Brighton's intimate Sallis Benney Theatre as part of the 2017 Great Escape Festival. I knew about his lovely rich baritone voice but was unaware of his interesting piano playing with its skillful arpeggios and unexpected key changes.
Previously with alternative rock band The Czars, Queen of Denmark is his much vaunted solo debut. Most of the songs are fundamentally piano based but are fleshed out with orchestration or band. Several employ electronics (which become more prominent on his later albums) like the typically personal JC Hates Faggotts:
I've felt uncomfortable since the day that I was born
Since the day I glimpsed the black abyss in your eyes
There's no way you could make all of this shit up on your own
It could only come from the mastermind of lies
I can't believe that I've considered taking my own life
'Cause I believed the lies about me were the truth
It will be magic to watch your transformation when you realize that you've been had
It's enough to make a guy like me feel sad
'Cause you tell me that Jesus
He hates fruit loops, son
We told you that when you were young
Or pretty much anything you want him to
Like sitcoms, paedophiles and kangaroos
And you tell me that Jesus
He hates homos, son
We told you that when you were young
Or pretty much anything you want him to
Like Cocoa Puffs, red cars and Jews
Standouts include Marz and the moving title song:
The War on Drugs
An odd name for a band this. An odd name for a "war" too, as was the one on "terror". The original phrase was actually coined by Richard Nixon's government in the early 70s. I had assumed it was a much more recent thing.
Anyway the band The War on Drugs were formed in 2005 but this is only their fourth album. The format follows the basic 4 beat rock laid down so successfully in their tremendous Lost in the Dream outing (a great album for long car journeys). It's not too challenging - just good straight forward rock music done well.
Early listens to this new album, which features in many Best of 2017 lists, indicate some typically catchy riffs and extended guitar solos but don't immediately reveal any tracks quite as exciting as An Ocean in Between the Waves from Lost in the Dream but, as that one was, this will be a grower too. If you've got a good sound you don't have to change too much.
Neil Young, they say, only has one guitar solo, but it's a good one.
I really like the series of live sessions by Seattle radio station KEXP. The one below from War on Drugs showcases four tracks from the new album. I also recommend the previous session from the band when they were touring the Lost in the Dream album.
The Resident Sampler
This sampler CD from Brighton store, Resident Music, came free with the above purchase of the War on Drugs album.
These free sample CDs rarely stand up as independent standalone musical entities of course and this is no exception even though the varying styles are somewhat grouped and there is some logical sequencing, but they do serve to introduce new bands, which is the point after all.
Nearly all these bands are new to me. I only recognise one - No. 8, Broken Social Scene.
Tracks that have jumped out initially (and it has to be only an initial impression to encourage further investigation as there are a lot of tracks here and I haven't got all week!) are one or two electronic ones around the middle of the set. Actually let's be more generous and take my role more seriously with a quick run through of each:
1Zola Jesus - Exhumed
High ghostly girl vocals over a stirring string based riff which initially sounds like the CD is stuck. 2Alice Coltrane - Rama Rama A ghostly chant over more wavering string based electronics (some recalling Pink Floyd's Welcome to the Machine! at least to my ears, would you believe) with a sitar and tabla. Unusual. 3Big Thief - Shark Smile Pleasant Belle and Sebastian type pop. Not my favourite type of laid back/lazy singing. 4Girl Ray - Stupid Things 60s flavoured piano pop. Velvet Underground gone soft. 5Carmen Villain - Red Desert
What is this - Vienna? More breathy ghostly (dare I say laid back and lazy again) girl vocals? Come on guys. Whereas the over enunciation of news readers in the wake of the ridiculous Robert Peston annoys, the complete opposite by many singers these days, who barely move their lips, does the same (X-Factor anyone?). There is a fine line between being effortlessly great and effortlessly a bit rubbish. If you can sing like John Martyn slurring is fine but otherwise (call me old fashioned) I'd like to hear the words. Nice hook though.
6Ema - 7 Years Same again. Some of these tracks could indeed be the same band. This one, with it's flangey guitar, has that classic Cocteau Twins sound going for it.
7Broken Social Scene - Hug Of Thunder Girl singer trying too hard this time.
8Sinkane - Telephone Pappy pop again. 9Kelly Lee Owens - Lucid Come on guys. Where are you? Ditto. But wait, half way through the singing stops and the track changes into a nice gated synth groove. 10Grandbrothers - Bloodflow Here things get more interesting. This is an excellent piano/electronic instrumental which builds very gradually and then fades again, in the style of Hidden Orchestra. Will investigate this one further. 11Barr Brothers - Defibrillation This sort of music sounds a bit over produced to me with everything including the kitchen sink thrown in and there is so much of it about now. Similar to Phosphorescent / Sigur Ros. It's just occurred to me - ethereal, that's the word I've been looking for throughout this CD.
An ethereal singer
12Gulp - Search For Your Love This is fun. I like the underlying riff and foot tapping percussion. Sounds a bit like a more poppy Portishead. 13Physics House Band - Calypso Not sure what this is. It sounds like heavy rock jazz prog electronica. I can hear a 100 bands in this but it's consequently a bit all over the place. I have to turn this CD off at this point if my wife walks into the room.
14Blanck Mass -The Rat This continues from the previous track. Heavy electronic dance music. The only thing I can think of in my collection that this reminds me of is Death in Vegas. 15Lower Slaughter - Bone Meal Punk. Girl shouter. Riff. 16Moon Duo - Creepin'
A little more focussed heavy pop Ramones style.
17Acid - Acid
The heavy theme continues with a bass riff themed track with a very heavy metal style singer who reminds me of Rainbow, Whitesnake or The Darkness. In contrast to the very smooth orchestrated pop tracks above this one actually sounds very under produced.
Ok, thanks Resident. That's probably enough of all that for now. Initial impressions are confirmed with favourite track no. 10 and honourable mentions for nos. 2 and 12, with not a lot else to follow up with urgency. So putting my links where my mouth is let's see who Grandbrothers are >>
The Felice Brothers
Much of the above CD may be described as ethereal. The Felice Brothers' lose the ethe and can be described as just plain real.
As regular readers will know I really rate this band of brothers mostly on account of exciting live performances I've seen on Youtube. Unfortunately I've yet to catch them live myself; a UK tour last year was cancelled on account of leader Ian Felice's health. Since then however he has managed to release a solo album and has made some limited UK appearances to promote it, so I guess he is ok for now. But will we see the full Felice Brothers band in the UK again soon, and will they still be at the peak of their powers as demonstrated by the songs on their raw, ramshackle and invigorating 2016 album Life in the Dark? I hope the moment hasn't passed.
Hailing from the romantically sounding Catskills Mountains region of upstate New York (it sounds romantic but is probably pretty grim) The Felice Brothers channel The Band and Bob Dylan. The Woodstock Festival was held just down the road and The Band's famous Big Pink House, where they wrote much of Music From Big Pink and recorded Dylan's Basement Tapes, was located in Saugerties on the Hudson River. Dylan was a famous resident of the area in the 60s but grew tired when it became overcrowded with “dropouts, druggies, moochers and goons". Van Morrison was a near neighbour but apparently never met Dylan much to his disappointment. This did not stop him celebrating his new found domestic rural bliss with "Brown Eyed Girl" wife Janet Planet on his Tupelo Honey album. Of course it wasn't all that and they separated in 1973:
I had this album cover years ago, Tupelo Honey, where there was a horse in it. So the myth then was that I was living on a ranch and had horses on that ranch. I didn't have a ranch; I didn't have a horse. I don't have a farm, and I never will. I mean, this is all part of the f**king mythology.
Three iconic albums synonymous with Woodstock
Fast forward nearly 40 years to Tonight at the Arizona and the cover of the Felice Brothers' second proper album finds them walking across the Catskills in the snow dressed as The Band.
The Felice Brothers in full Band garb
This is mostly acoustic and closer to another solo Ian Felice album than some of their more recent full band outings. I bought it on the strength of the first two tracks: Roll on Arte, and The Ballad of Lou the Welterweight. Two of the Felice's greatest ever songs. The first is heartbreaking...
...the second starts with one of the best opening lines ever:
Powder your nose, pull off your pantyhose Let me love you from behind, my Darling
Barnstorming live favourite T for Texas is also in the collection.
Perhaps I was too hasty condemning all Christmas music - I've only just noticed there is a track entitled Christmas Song on this album! And, of course... it's good.
