BUT! Extra shifts of dish washing, weeks of replacing blown tires, and the selling of one box of childhood memories (vauled at $10), has returned my laptop to me! Just in time to save myself from going completely mad :) One of my only links to grabbing any kind of music and doing any kind of writing has always been my laptop. The 20 minute computer rentals at the public library don't quite cut it. And after catching up on all the gratuitous amounts of
Bloc Party
The Nextwave Sessions (EP)
(Frenckiss Records)
August 12, 2013
Didn't Bloc Party JUST get of hiatus? Did I just imagine all those shows they started doing about a year back, the rumors about a follow up to their comeback album Four, and all those interviews where they said they were "really excited" to be back together making music? Imagined or not, After a brief whole year of being back together and touring North America to tease new material for their EP, The Nextwave Sessions, Bloc Party has announced yet another indefinite hiatus. Odds are pretty good that it's safe to stop holding your breath for a comeback. But before they parted ways, they did live a pretty nice going away present in the for of 5 new songs. Rerecorded as part of a completely separate recording session from Four, Nextwave's hints at a new sound the lads of Bloc Party might have been perusing before shelving the whole thing. While "Ratchet" roars right out the gate with that oh so familiar and irresistible, groovy ball-room blitz the boys are usually know for, things take a decided turn for the more "R&B" flavored on the reaming tracks. "Obscene" has an slowed down, icy beat and features Kele Okereke doing his best Prince impression on the vocals. While "Montreal" opts to go for a more experimental atmospheric feel. There's no doubt this could be anything but Bloc Party on the cusp of trying something new, and while it's certainly something different then what the fans are use to, it's an actually pretty cool turn. At the very least, it sounds like the band wasn't content with merely re-recording "Helicopter" and "Hunting For Witches" for the rest of their career. However short that career in question turned out to be.
Don Cavalii
Temperamental
(Everloving Inc)
August 13, 2013
Don Cavalii may very well be a textbook case for why you shouldn't give up. Long after most humans would surely have found something else to do that was less soul crushing, Don Cavalii has trucked on since the 80's in a number of rockabilly outfits, slowly expanding his repertoire to include power pop, swamp rock, blues, and a little bit of soul along the way. Finally finding the success he was long since overdue with his 2007 solo album, Cryland, Cavalii went on to enjoy the fruits of success for a bit, play in what has to be every hole-in the wall club ever, before returning for a follow up 5 years later. Anything worth doing well is worth taking your time on, is apparently his ethic. But the quality shows. Keeping up with that delicious, southern fried blend of swampy, poppy, garage tunes, Cavalii manages to successful integrate different sounds across different decades. From the funky grooves of the 70's on the title track, to the lazy guitar pop of the 60's on "Garden of Love", to gospel by the way of The Beatles on, "Gonna Love You". Time is nothing but a number to a man who's been at listening to and playing with more bands than I'll ever know.
Deltron 3030
City Rising From The Ashes
(Bulk Recording Inc.)
August 13, 2013
A sticking point that I've always had with rap is the unwillingness to peruse more fantastical concepts on their albums. I mean real concept albums, in the sense of I dunno, say "this is the story of how I became the God Osiris and declared war on an alien planet in the far flung future 3030". Something like that. But lucky for me, my man Del The Funky Homosapien (better known to most as the ghost Del, who posses the drummer Russel in the fictional band Gorillaz, featured famously on their song "Clint Eastwood"), gets me and has returned with the project Deltron 3030 to record a brand spanking new follow up to their debut back in 2000. It's 13 years overdue but all is forgiven with this leaked EP debuting 3 new tracks from their upcoming Deltron Event II (due out in October), because the concept of said album is percsisley what I just described. Did I mention the title track of this EP features guest vocals by Mike Patton? And you still haven't downloaded it yet?
Jagwar Ma
Howlin'
(Mom + Pop Music)
Agust 13, 2013
The Tame Impala comparisons I figure are damn near unavoidable, even IF Jagwar Ma didn't also happen to come form them same continent of Australia. But what you have here is another psychedelic rock group ,hailing from Sydney as opposed to Perth, that manage to succeed in dragging out the sounds of funky British influences from decades past. But whilst Tame Impala were content to borrow the playbook from the Beatles and add their own weird noodling to it, Jagwar Ma seek the tap into the crazy "blink and you'll have missed it" decade of decadence that was Madchester on their debut album, Howlin'. Invoking the trippy dance rock sound of Happy Mondays and the fuzzy haze of acid-house, Jagwar Ma bring something to music scene that frankly hasn't really been heard for about twenty years. And, provided you've never actually heard of Happy Mondays, it'll be new to you as well.
Moondoggies
Adios, I'm A Ghost
(Hardly Art)
Agust 13, 2013
Seatle outfit, The Moondoggies have been enjoying their comfortable niche of paying homage to the LA band sound of the 60's; blending the harmonies of The Byrds, the country vibes of The Flying Burrito Brothers, and the swirling guitar rhythms of Buffalo Springfield, with exactly NO homages to "the fucking Eagles" (statistically speaking, you read that in the Dude's voice). Their third album, they show no signs of changing that formula too much here. Adios, I'm A Ghost finds the Moondoggies pushing themselves to have a more varied sounding, and subsequently longer album. The 6 minute long "A Lot To Give" features psych heavy swirls of guitar complete with keyboard. But "Red Eye" comes in as a jaunty, country-romp that channels the Grateful Dead at their most playful. There's even the incredibly depressing "Pride" , and "Back To The Beginning" that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Neil Young's After The Gold Rush. The mood across the album is an ever changing one, and the boys of Moondoggies manipulate it well.
Scott and Charlene's Wedding
Any Port In A Storm
(Fire Records)
Scott and Charlene's Wedding is the awkward name of the music project by one Australasian Craig Dermody, who's since taken residence in New York City. (and by he sounds of the no less dozens of references, it's safe to say he's taken to it quite nicely) But clumsy name aside (evidently it comes from the name of an old sitcom), Dermody's Port In A Storm is a pleasantly, enjoyable slice of lo-fi garage rock goodness under the awkward band name. The album is not a thrashing one, and opts for a wall of playful guitar harmonies as opposed to fuzzy revereb drenching every note; but it's stronger for it. Rather then try to beat you over the head with overt aggressiveness, Any Port In The Storm eases you in with a pretty wall of guitars, simply drumming, and Dremody's sentimental croon. Think early garage rock meets the sonic melodies Pavement by way of Dinosaur Jr.
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