I've been listening to whatever Greg Dulli has been doing for years. The Afghan Whigs, Twilight Singers, guest spots on other people's records, almost all of it. Through all of Dulli's work, there's a soulful, wounded heart to his rock. He plays his own songs and cover others all in his own unique style. And we also have Mark Lanegan, a man who has a deep, powerful voice that sounds perfectly weathered, whether it's with Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age, his own stuff, that record he did with Isobel Campbell (you should hunt that one down, Ballad of the Broken Seas) or as a special guest on the last Twilight Singers tour. So, word that Dulli and Lanegan were just going ahead and doing a record together and calling the project the Gutter Twins (a perfect band name for them), I figured I knew exactly what it would sound like.
Sorta. It is dark, which I expected. It's got some sinister vibes to it, again, which I expected. But it also has some quieter moments and other aspects that kinda surprised me. It took me a couple listens to totally wrap my head around it. It did not initially knock me out like I thought it would. But I spent some time, giving Saturnalia more than just an initial listen or two and now I like it more than I thought I would.
The first half has a familiar feel to it, harnessing a sinister, shadowy sound not far removed from what you would hear on a film soundtrack, something I've always felt about Dulli's best work. It sets a mood and pulls you in from the first second with opening track "The Stations" and running straight through to the fifth track, the first song they let folks here on the internet, "Idle Hands". This part fits together very well and rock with a dark edge to it. From there, it shifts gears a bit from song to song and incorporates more strings and a loop here and there, as on "Seven Stories Underground", "Each to Each" and another Dulli masterpiece "I Was in Love with You".
The songwriting styles of the two mesh incredibly well together; it doesn't sound like they simply pitched in a few songs each called it a band.. The recording approach Dulli has been using for the last few years works for the Twins as well. The current line-up of the Twilight Singers all appear as do a cast of other musicians, among them Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens of the Stone Age), Petra Haden and Martina Topley-Bird (whose "Too Tough to Die" was previously covered by the Twilight Singers). It's an approach that has definitely worked before for Dulli and it works just as well here. It feels like a band playing every note together on each track.
While I thought this disc was going to be one sound over and over, and that wouldn't be a bad thing, its diversity threw me a bit at first. Now that it has sunk in, I like it, as a whole, even more than I thought I would. I like that some musicians I've been listening to for years, still have it in them to make great music and still keep it interesting.
The Gutter Twins on MySpace.
The Gutter Twins playing "Idle Hands" on The Late Show with David Letterman.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Young Galaxy Young Galaxy
I had read about Young Galaxy on a few websites and in a couple of magazines and it sounded like something I would want to check out. Could not turn up a copy of the CD anywhere in this town, so I asked my girlfriend to order it through the store she works for. It comes in, I go to pick it up, look at the cover. And was instantly won over.
The cover's graphics make it look like a 5-inch version of a 12-inch vinyl album. An old one. That's been played a ton and refiled into the middle of a huge shelf of records. It has that faded ring around it in the perfect round shape of the platter housed within. A lot of my old records look like that. I flipped through gatefolds and read liner notes like a spaz (how else would I still know who engineered the Power Station record?).
Young Galaxy have a familiarity about them without sounding like any one band from any one time. But they sound like someone I've been listening to for years. I hear elements of shoegaze. I hear a lot of college rock from all eras between 1981 and 1994. Even a hint of the lazy, sun-drenched California rock from the 70's. But at no one time do they sound exactly or solely like any one of them. I think the sunny sounds make the cold, angular aspects sound warmer and more organic. This sounds like it's a huge room full of actual people playing actual instruments together. It may have been pieced all together, but it sure doesn't sound like it.
"Swing Your Heartache", the opener, kind of ruined me for this record for awhile because it is such a good song. It opens with a cold, almost detached feel before a golden guitar riff make the song completely fill the room. It was all I could remember. But repeatedly listens were needed to fully appreciate all it had to offer. Now I know the first six tracks by heart, and totally dig the whole thing. The strong choruses, the male/female vocals, the guitar hooks, things like that make this one stand out from a lot of the really good rock that's been coming out on smaller labels.
Some bands I hear and appreciate the musicianship, can tell the songs are well-written, but they don't bowl me over and become one of the bands I have to put on every mix CD I make. They don't come up in conversations at the bar over a few beers. But Young Galaxy does. "Swing..." has been echoing in my head the entire time I've been typing this. I had to go to into my library and play it because it was driving me nuts. But any song here works. Track it down and check it out. And give it time. It deserves many, many listens, but it's worth it.
Young Galaxy on MySpace. "Swing Your Heartache" is there as of today. And so are three other excellent songs.
Young Galaxy on Arts & Crafts (label) website. Has some more video clips that the MySpace doesn't have.
The cover's graphics make it look like a 5-inch version of a 12-inch vinyl album. An old one. That's been played a ton and refiled into the middle of a huge shelf of records. It has that faded ring around it in the perfect round shape of the platter housed within. A lot of my old records look like that. I flipped through gatefolds and read liner notes like a spaz (how else would I still know who engineered the Power Station record?).
Young Galaxy have a familiarity about them without sounding like any one band from any one time. But they sound like someone I've been listening to for years. I hear elements of shoegaze. I hear a lot of college rock from all eras between 1981 and 1994. Even a hint of the lazy, sun-drenched California rock from the 70's. But at no one time do they sound exactly or solely like any one of them. I think the sunny sounds make the cold, angular aspects sound warmer and more organic. This sounds like it's a huge room full of actual people playing actual instruments together. It may have been pieced all together, but it sure doesn't sound like it.
"Swing Your Heartache", the opener, kind of ruined me for this record for awhile because it is such a good song. It opens with a cold, almost detached feel before a golden guitar riff make the song completely fill the room. It was all I could remember. But repeatedly listens were needed to fully appreciate all it had to offer. Now I know the first six tracks by heart, and totally dig the whole thing. The strong choruses, the male/female vocals, the guitar hooks, things like that make this one stand out from a lot of the really good rock that's been coming out on smaller labels.
Some bands I hear and appreciate the musicianship, can tell the songs are well-written, but they don't bowl me over and become one of the bands I have to put on every mix CD I make. They don't come up in conversations at the bar over a few beers. But Young Galaxy does. "Swing..." has been echoing in my head the entire time I've been typing this. I had to go to into my library and play it because it was driving me nuts. But any song here works. Track it down and check it out. And give it time. It deserves many, many listens, but it's worth it.
Young Galaxy on MySpace. "Swing Your Heartache" is there as of today. And so are three other excellent songs.
Young Galaxy on Arts & Crafts (label) website. Has some more video clips that the MySpace doesn't have.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Tin Machine Tin Machine
Yup, Tin Machine. Now, the only time I ever even hear this name anymore is when some music writer wants to disparage some other musician's side project. And I am one of the very few who don't laugh at the jokes. Because I like Tin Machine. I would go as far as saying that I love all three of their records.
But I can start with this one. It's probably the most solid and definitely the one that grabbed my attention. I remember watching this thing on ABC called the International Rock Awards and seeing the debut of David Bowie's new band. They played this album's opening track, "Heaven's In Here", and I recall it so well because I watched it with my jaw in my lap. Once the song reached the solo and guitarist Reeves Gabrels laid into his solo, I was in. Not too long after a 13 minute video with a medley of most of this record popped up on MTV and I had to have this record.
It's aged just fine with me. Brothers Hunt and Tony Sales, on drums and bass respectively, had worked with Bowie before on some of the music he did with Iggy Pop, including playing on "Lust for Life", which let's face it...that track has one of the best rhythm section performances ever. With Tin Machine, their playing provides the perfect grounding for Gabrels to soar over with some of the most unorthodox rock playing I've ever heard. Bowie, at the time, seemed content to just be one of the guys in the band. It put a lot of casual Bowie fans off, but me, not a big Bowie fan at the time it came out in 1989, I got more interested in Bowie because of it.
And the songs are there, regardless of what you may have heard otherwise. "Amazing" would probably find its way into my Top Album Tracks Ever conversation over some drinks one night. "Under the God" sounds like a punk song after all these years. The studio recording off the aforementioned "Heaven's In Here" has some excellent soloing on it. "Crack City" rides a great lazy riff. All of it is delivered by a truly great group of musicians.
On paper, the straight-forward, muscular rock power of the Sales brothers and the avant-garde explorations of Gabrels should be a mess. And most people think it is. But I don't. And I know a handful of others who agree. Henry Rollins gave the track "Prisoner of Love" some love in his book, Fanatic!. A couple of other musicians I've met over the years have told me they love the Tin Machine records. Some of the good folks at the record store I shopped at for years (and worked at for awhile) had my back on this one, too. I know this record lives in the cheap bins at most used record shops. Actually, it's really easy to find either one of their first two records, this one and the cleverly titled follow-up Tin Machine II. Your collection would really benefit from either of them. Now, if you really want to go over the edge and lose your cred with your friends, get the live one, Oy Vey, Baby. It opens with one of the best covers ever: their live version of Roxy Music's "If There Is Something". There's a studio version on II, but the live one smokes it.
Okay, so it's a punchline for most music fans. But most of the people who drop that reference probably never even listened to a whole record. And if, they did back then, a second listen now would probably surprise most. They only lasted three or four years, but long live Tin Machine!
Here's the video for "Under the God" on YouTube.
Here's that performance of"Heaven's In Here" from the International Rock Awards, also from YouTube. The fifth person on stage is Kevin Armstrong, who played some additional guitar on the first record.
But I can start with this one. It's probably the most solid and definitely the one that grabbed my attention. I remember watching this thing on ABC called the International Rock Awards and seeing the debut of David Bowie's new band. They played this album's opening track, "Heaven's In Here", and I recall it so well because I watched it with my jaw in my lap. Once the song reached the solo and guitarist Reeves Gabrels laid into his solo, I was in. Not too long after a 13 minute video with a medley of most of this record popped up on MTV and I had to have this record.
It's aged just fine with me. Brothers Hunt and Tony Sales, on drums and bass respectively, had worked with Bowie before on some of the music he did with Iggy Pop, including playing on "Lust for Life", which let's face it...that track has one of the best rhythm section performances ever. With Tin Machine, their playing provides the perfect grounding for Gabrels to soar over with some of the most unorthodox rock playing I've ever heard. Bowie, at the time, seemed content to just be one of the guys in the band. It put a lot of casual Bowie fans off, but me, not a big Bowie fan at the time it came out in 1989, I got more interested in Bowie because of it.
And the songs are there, regardless of what you may have heard otherwise. "Amazing" would probably find its way into my Top Album Tracks Ever conversation over some drinks one night. "Under the God" sounds like a punk song after all these years. The studio recording off the aforementioned "Heaven's In Here" has some excellent soloing on it. "Crack City" rides a great lazy riff. All of it is delivered by a truly great group of musicians.
On paper, the straight-forward, muscular rock power of the Sales brothers and the avant-garde explorations of Gabrels should be a mess. And most people think it is. But I don't. And I know a handful of others who agree. Henry Rollins gave the track "Prisoner of Love" some love in his book, Fanatic!. A couple of other musicians I've met over the years have told me they love the Tin Machine records. Some of the good folks at the record store I shopped at for years (and worked at for awhile) had my back on this one, too. I know this record lives in the cheap bins at most used record shops. Actually, it's really easy to find either one of their first two records, this one and the cleverly titled follow-up Tin Machine II. Your collection would really benefit from either of them. Now, if you really want to go over the edge and lose your cred with your friends, get the live one, Oy Vey, Baby. It opens with one of the best covers ever: their live version of Roxy Music's "If There Is Something". There's a studio version on II, but the live one smokes it.
Okay, so it's a punchline for most music fans. But most of the people who drop that reference probably never even listened to a whole record. And if, they did back then, a second listen now would probably surprise most. They only lasted three or four years, but long live Tin Machine!
Here's the video for "Under the God" on YouTube.
Here's that performance of"Heaven's In Here" from the International Rock Awards, also from YouTube. The fifth person on stage is Kevin Armstrong, who played some additional guitar on the first record.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Liam Finn I'll Be Lightning
Liam Finn is a fantastic live performer. Guitar lines loop over each other through an array of pedals. The swirling sounds of the multiple guitar and bass parts fully color in the songs as he sings instantly catchy pop melodies over the top of it all. Sometimes towards the end of a song, he'll sit down and accompany the wall of guitar sounds with a drumkit. As he flails away on the kit, it provides the perfect release to all the energy that song already has. The songs have to go somewhere and the drums help them get there.
The danger, of course, lies in whether or not that can translate to the record. And I'll Be Lightning, Finn's solo debut after his work with his former band Betchadupa. Finn plays almost every note on the record. It sounds a bit like it as well, in a very good way. Bits and pieces flow in and out of the mix, lending itself to a bit of a bedroom recording kind of sound. But it also has impressive arrangements sounding like a solid five-piece group.
And it grabs you quick. It opens with "Better to Be", a nice tune bolstered by noisy guitar blasts and sunshine harmonies. Then, it's followed with first single, "Second Chance", with a tick-tock drum program that alternates between sounding too slow and too fast before the live drums come in and the whole song just explodes out of the speakers.
By then, the record should have already have your attention. And the quality level stays very consistent. Finn's voice has much more sides to it than most one-man bands. I'll Be Lightning is a solid and promising debut for an artist that should have much more up his sleeve.
Liam Finn on MySpace
"Second Chance" (Live) on YouTube from the Beacon Theater in New York, August 2007. You can also probably find his performance of that song with vocalist Eliza-Jane Barnes on the Late Show with David Letterman there as well.
The danger, of course, lies in whether or not that can translate to the record. And I'll Be Lightning, Finn's solo debut after his work with his former band Betchadupa. Finn plays almost every note on the record. It sounds a bit like it as well, in a very good way. Bits and pieces flow in and out of the mix, lending itself to a bit of a bedroom recording kind of sound. But it also has impressive arrangements sounding like a solid five-piece group.
And it grabs you quick. It opens with "Better to Be", a nice tune bolstered by noisy guitar blasts and sunshine harmonies. Then, it's followed with first single, "Second Chance", with a tick-tock drum program that alternates between sounding too slow and too fast before the live drums come in and the whole song just explodes out of the speakers.
By then, the record should have already have your attention. And the quality level stays very consistent. Finn's voice has much more sides to it than most one-man bands. I'll Be Lightning is a solid and promising debut for an artist that should have much more up his sleeve.
Liam Finn on MySpace
"Second Chance" (Live) on YouTube from the Beacon Theater in New York, August 2007. You can also probably find his performance of that song with vocalist Eliza-Jane Barnes on the Late Show with David Letterman there as well.
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