A final post before taking an extended break...

Yep, just can't devote enough time to do this properly for the moment, and with the holiday season upon us, do not anticipate any new posts till 2015.  I have a few titles ready to go so I'll list them with a short blurb and maybe a video...

 

 

 

 

JOE HENRY - Invisible Hour

 

Ooooofff, this storyteller stuff is fine, but damn, one would need a bowl of Quaaludes to sit through this as a whole.  I like him, but this is borrring.

 

 

 

 

JOHN MAYALL - A Special Life

 

I don't think there has ever been a more savvy bluesman in his ability to surround himself with musicians who "get" the musical blueprint he's looking for than John Mayall.  He's been recording for fifty years and hardly ever disappoints.  Not this time, either...

 

 

 

 

ROYAL SOUTHERN BROTHERHOOD - heartsoulblood

 

This should really be better than it is based on the group's members; Cyril Neville, Devon Allman, Mike Zito and Charlie Wooten.  This is a gumbo in which someone omitted the okra...it just ain't right.  A couple of bites (tracks) are okay, but it's probably best to just throw it out...

 

 

 

UMPHREY'S MCGEE - Similar Skin

Always held a bias against this band as they were formed at a hated NCAA football school, Notre Dame.  No denying the various members' musical influences, be they jam band, jazz, improv, Zappa-esque, what-have-you, I just never found them to develop their own sound.  Per example, the opening track of this album unabashedly swipes from The Police.  Known for their live performances and wacky covers, I just wish they had melded it all into something truly original.  Fifteen years and eight studio albums later, it still hasn't happened.  Keeping three tracks and this is one... 





 

 

 

 

ROYAL BLOOD

 

I was obviously late to this party as it debuted at #30 domestically and #1 in the UK.  A bit of research finds they're on a major (WB) and a two-man band, a style of which I have vehemently argued against since the White Stripes, to whom this is most often compared.  Well, I think it sounds more like Jack White's solo efforts and this blows them away.  Won't even mention The Black Keys in the same breath.  I also heard what most everyone else mentions, Muse and QOTSA, but others reference T. Rex and Led Zep.  Simply put, this is nothing new but that doesn't mean it isn't enjoyable.  Only negative is there's not enough of it at 32 minutes. 

 

Yep, that's a bass he's playing and yep, this is probably why Dave Grohl is a fan and taking them out to open for the Foos next year.




MIKE FARRIS - Shine For All The People

Completely stunned by this record.  Could not believe this was the same guy from Nashville's Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies......still shaking my head as I play this while writing.  And I believe this is the first Gospel album I've posted on.  That's right, Gospel.  The guy was a mess back in the SCW days, and apparently, he's sobered up and turned his life around, sharing the experience and joy through his music.  An acquaintance of mine used to sing BGVs for Natalie Cole years ago (she's portrayed Billie Holiday in a local production and recently sang in a Ray Charles tribute show for 2700 humans...so the woman can bring it!) and I knew she would appreciate the record, so I put on the opening track for her.  She immediately stepped back, cocked her head and asked, "Is that Al Green?  No, wait, Sam Moore?"  Nope, just a born-again rock 'n' roller who still looks the part.........white dude.  "WHAT?!?!  NO WAY!!!"  Yes, way...






PHILIP SAYCE - Influence

OK, click on this link for my post in 2012 that gives the background needed here.

Thank you.

May I now present a slightly altered excerpt of a review that I wholeheartedly endorse...

"...this is an album fueled not by moonshine, but one of quality Gin, the spirit flavored with hints and whispers of various botanicals along with the main ingredient, juniper (allow me to suggest substituting "blues" here), that tease and test your taste buds. "Influence" does the same for your ear and tests the hearing skills as you find and identify the influences from genres and guitarists including Rock, Rock n’ Roll, Psychedelia, Heavy...guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Healey and others.  The overall influence is blues of every shade and tone.  This album is an aural teaser.  Every track is different with a balanced mix of divine originals and instinctual covers (Little Richard, Graham Nash) that take you to a place that is musical and spiritual; they hit that musical nerve at the bass of your spine and send tingles and shivers of delight throughout your body, creating a feeling of oneness with the music."



Still an import in the U.S. but if I can find it, so can you.  One of the best albums this year.

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And that's a fine record to sign off with................for now......

Angus & Julia Stone (Deluxe Version)

I got this immediately upon release and a few weeks later labeled it "Probably Best Album 2014" in a Facebook post for my friends.  Here it is two additional months later and I've yet to pull it from rotation.  Not that the automobile is the ideal surroundings (it's certainly not a gas-pedal pusher), but it is a wonderful aural environment for those after-dark drives to anywhere.  Over half of the tracks here are A+ material, outstanding.  Throw in the two extras in the deluxe version (though atypical of the regular album, these are two uptempo hits) and it's two-thirds @ A+.  The recommended setting for a complete spin would be betwixt a nice set of headphones or surrounded by a sweet speaker system after a few tokes of your favorite medicinal/recreation party favour.  This album recalls sounds of the late-60's all the way through today.  One reviewer likened their harmonies to Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra (damn, that's good...wish I had made that comparison) and others said they heard Dire Straits (!?) and Fartwood Mac (that's due to Julia's Stevie Nicks-like warble).  The final track of the album proper features Angus channeling Neil Young.

 

This album has had a nice run so far on plenty of international charts, hitting the Top 10 in several countries and is still ranking in France and their Australian home.  Here?  It cracked the Top 10.......Heatseekers.  Come on, Yanks, this record deserves your attention!  Their music caught the attention of one very influential American last year, someone who had heard the siblings weren't planning on doing more work together, opting for the solo route (Angus' solo is my all-time #1 post and Julia's is #3 for this past month).  This gentleman fired off separate emails to the two, expressing his desire to work with them in the studio.  Angus replied that they do their own thing when recording and do not work with "producers."  A couple of weeks later, Julia emailed her brother and asked if he understood who he had rebuffed.  Angus admitted he wasn't a credit reader, to which Julia replied with album titles they had loved as kids growing up, all of which were produced by this guy named Rubin.  Yeah, that Rubin, the head-bobbin' bearded one in this video...

 

 

And now another featured cut from a French music site...




Please, please, please, please, please American readers, support these talented kids.  And please, please, please, please, please talented kids, come back to America somewhere close to me so I can witness again your magic...

Too much work, too many albums, not enough time...(Part 3)

If you click the links to the two previous albums (self-titled and Vanishing Americans), you will read some verbiage that dumps on the two records previous to this blog, as well.  Though he's always worth the listen because of the fiery guitar and smoky vocals, I still expected this album to fall into the same line of "meh" that the last four records has formed.  Details on Indigenous albums have always been hard to come by, but I searched with renewed fervor when this album passed the keeper test.  "Glad to see that Mato is back in control of his career..." was one comment I found which had me furiously looking to see if he had heeded my advice to plop wifey outside the studio and lock the door.  Nope, she's still listed as co-writer on all but the one cover, but she must have taken a 6th-grade-level writing class because the lyrics aren't nearly as juvenile as before, though I still read comments from others that complained of simplistic lines.  There's very little that hasn't already been written and played in the Blues genre but this album didn't offend my appreciation of the blues like the earlier records. 



Mighty fine, indeed.....

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Damn near impossible to believe this is his first #1 album.  Sure, there were a couple of #2's and another ten or so in the Top 10, but to wait 36 years in this career for a Number 1 is mind-blowing.  I bought this because his last record (one of the #2s) was so good.  And it doesn't disappoint.  Solid quality throughout the album.  The Heartbreakers have to be one of the best backing bands around.  Campbell, Tench, Ferrone, et al...exceptional players.  Nowhere near the best track on the album, this is classic TP style.  I originally had embedded the clip from Jimmy Kimmel's show but it has since been deemed "private," so here's a boring visual version...



I'll get the next record, whenever that is, too.

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Many of the KISS Army legions have tossed this away like an old rag, toeing the company line that bans them from liking Ace.  IMO, it was his guitar that made the early KISS albums the only ones of merit.  Not that the music contained within Space Invader is any different than the parent brand, it's just performed with a crispness and energy that hasn't been found in a KISS record in decades.  Please, if you took those last two slabs of KISS drivel and called the band Smooch, they wouldn't have cracked the charts. 

It was a surprise to me that this was a Top 10 album.  I knew there was more upfront promotion than the previous release, but a #9 debut......really?  Wow...  Only black mark was his version of The Joker...ewwwww, what a stinker.
Saw an interview where he mentioned this as one of his favorite tracks on the album, and one of mine, too...



I like his playing, writing and droning vocal styles.  Keep kicking, Ace...

Too much work, too many albums, not enough time...(Part 2)

Vocalist Dan McCafferty has retired from touring due to his declining health and Pete Agnew's band has already named a replacement, but don't write off that distinct voice yet.  This album is far superior to the last one and has sold better as a result, charting in Sweden, Germany, Norway and Austria, as well as having a three-week run in Switzerland. 



About half of this is very good, eliciting head bobbin' and foot stompin' in the car, a few tracks are better than average and a couple aren't.  For a man who just turned 68, McCafferty's still got it.  So what if he doesn't travel?  Plop him down in a chair in the studio with a bottle of Jack on the counter and turn on the microphone.  Let the other guy sing on tour.

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This time Hiatt has stumbled, IMO.  Instead of dipping his toes in the blues as he normally does, this time he's waist-deep in them........and it doesn't work.  Color me disappointed.  I had to wait over half the album before a track finally played that had the sound I anticipated.  This isn't the song I'm referring, but it is one of the three keepers...



There is one classic tune to be found on "Terms..." and it's entitled "Old People"

Old people are pushy, cause you don't know how they feel
And when you pretend you do
Well they know it's not real
Pretty soon it's gonna be all over
Good enough reason not to let you pass
They done seem like sweet, little old people
But they are not about to kiss your ass

I'm getting to this point in my life..........

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Now this is more like it.  This will be the first Phish title added to my collection since Farmhouse in 2000.  Of course, there have only been two others since then.........details... 
This record is more mature with only a smattering of reckless abandon, yet it works.  Some tracks have short passages which hint at twenty-year-old tunes, but hint only.  The title track opener excels...



...and the single non-Anastasio penned number (solo credited to Page McConnell) is a winner, too.  My guess is the impetus came from behind the board.  Bob Ezrin, producer extraordinaire, manned this project and I have to believe there was much trust from the band as to his suggestions. 

Well done, gentlemen...... 

Too much work, too many albums, not enough time...

...to do justice to everything so I'm going to zip through some new releases that have precedent within this blog.  I will link the earlier posts and offer a short synopsis which hopefully will provide a bit of insight.  We're off...

 

Quite simply one of this year's best.  I sort of peed all over myself about the previous record two years ago though I have better bladder control this time out.  This is solid wire-to-wire.  Why it isn't a rock radio staple is only due to programmer stupidity.  It has sold far better in Europe (which is why I got to spin it again when I found it in the CD section of the in-flight entertainment on a recent overseas jaunt) than domestically and they are headed across the pond soon for about 30 dates before Christmas.  This is where my pattern of waiting a while before listening to these new albums craps on my chances of seeing a show as they've usually passed through my area before I know it. 

 

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I thoroughly enjoyed their previous record as did many others.  This one comes highly produced and shimmering (courtesy of big-bucks major label Columbia), again recalling the heyday of Indigo Girls but this time just a dab of country instrumentation.  It cracked the Top 25 domestically and charted in another dozen countries, topping the charts in their home country of Sweden and also Norway.  My ear detected three obvious singles and I got one right...



A bright, bright future lies ahead for these young ladies.  I see they are in Orlando in early November......may have to attend.

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From the ashes of Black Country Communion comes California Breed, which consists of Glenn Hughes and Jason Bonham along with some kid trying to fill the enormous shoes of Joe Bonamassa.  The clash of the two giant egos put an end to the four years of BCC and CA Breed is Hughes' answer......................meh.  Same style as BCC just not as creative.  The album hit about a half dozen charts the week it was released and quickly disappeared.  There's not much here that would stimulate a return, either.  Not a complete loss as I will probably retain about a third of it.  This is one I will keep...




Get the Rival Sons instead....

Liam Finn "The Nihilist"

 

Was very anxious to hear this new release.  I figured it would build upon the promise of his last record and also by his participation in his dad's most recent slab o' genius.  Alas, it's probably my least favorite of his small discography but it's a keeper, nonetheless.

I noted similarities to his earlier work but this is more John & Yoko than just John due to friend/collaborator Eliza Jane Barnes (yep, Jimmy's daughter... quite the lineage between these two, eh?), who is more prominent in the vocal mix this time. 



Yeah, he's a rebel.  Official video for a track called "Snug As Fuck."  "Airplay be damned, I say!"

My notes repeated the term "complicated" though there were a couple of songs, one named for Mrs. Tim Burton, which could be called pop.  I didn't say "hits," did I?  Even these tracks have way too much going on for terrestrial radio.  Here is the other of the two...



My absolute favorite tune closes the record.  "Wrestling With Dad" does exactly that, wringing Split Enz-ish influences into a shallow pool of Cure tendencies. 

One of my favorite review sites opined that more than a few of Finn's fans would be "a bit puzzled" (that's me) but also labeled him "bold" and "visionary."  I was moved to the point of checking his tour, discovering that he just wrapped up a handful of dates domestically as a support act to Warpaint (who?????). 

Oh, well, maybe next time...

Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band "Goin' Home"

The ending line from my post on his live album a few years ago says, "...let's hope for new studio material in 2011."  Somehow, someway, for whatever reason, I never acquired it when it dropped a year later.  BKP didn't let that happen this time.  Packaged with the Neil Schon solo, they were a nice pair (there's a forty-plus year-old album title).  KWS is a seasoned veteran at 37, able to coerce some fine names to join him whether on stage or in studio.  This album guests Warren Haynes, Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh and Kim Wilson, among others.  He covers songs by the Kings (Albert, B.B., Freddie) and SRV, to name a few.  Bandmates include Chris Layton (Double Trouble) and Tony Franklin (The Firm).  There are no flaws in the fabric.  Featured 500, here it comes...



A Willie Dixon tune made famous by Mr. Diddley.  Noah Hunt is one helluva singer.  This is another of the smokin' tracks from the record...



I had to look for his tour schedule to see if he was getting close any time soon, but alas, he's on the West Coast with the Experience Hendrix ensemble before taking his solo gig overseas.  If you want to hear him rip some Jimi, it's all over the internet.

I also discovered that the version I received contained three bonus tracks and it's worth the search, if you are interested.  One is a Howlin' Wolf cover and another is the early 60's NOLA classic, "Trick Bag," a song that I will always count the late Johnny Winter's interpretation as one of my favorites.

The Rides wasn't what I meant when I asked for studio material, though it was thoroughly enjoyable.  "Goin' Home" is what I envisioned...  

Neal Schon featuring Mendoza & Castronovo "So U"

I was very happy to see this in a recent BKP care package.  With the viability of the new Journey lineup and album and the rock veterans employed and credited on "So U," the bar was set fairly high.  And it did not disappoint.

I went back to the log book and found that I own two of his non-Journey records from the 80's, one which co-headlined Jan Hammer.  I can honestly admit that I had no idea he had released a half dozen others between then and now.  His cohorts here are pedigreed to the max.  Marco Mendoza, bassist extraordinaire, first started with Blue Murder and John Sykes in the early 90's and eventually the Thin Lizzy reformation, including the Black Star Riders from last year.  He also spent a couple of years with Ted Nugent around the turn of the century.  Deen Castonovo has been drumming in Journey for the past 15+ years and was in Bad English with Schon and Jonathan Cain for their two records in '89 and '91.  As I scanned the credits, the name Jack Blades appears as cowriter on six of the album's nine tracks.  What I didn't find was current Journey vocalist, Arnel Pineda, and I was certain he was on two of the songs, one which would fit squarely on any post-1978 Journey record.  Turns out it's Castronovo singing.  Well, I'll be damned...



Not the most inspired video setting, huh?  Actually, after watching all three "official" videos, they were all shot in front of the same green screen, and I'm guessing on the same day, only the songs, background and attire changed.  C'mon, Neil, it's not as if you can't afford it...  Maybe he knew deep down that the ROI wasn't going to justify dropping the coin because 75% of this album is more along the lines of pre-Steve Perry Journey, which was when I first discovered the band.  It was that fateful Thanksgiving holiday break in 1976 when I was finally offered a chance to do a show on WPRK...actually, it was ALL the shows from Wednesday through Saturday night, five on-air hours per, all on 25 minutes notice and 10 minutes of training.  I dropped the needle on the longest track of whatever album I played in an effort to minimize the number of cuing errors and segments featuring dead air.  This provided plenty of opportunities in those four fateful days to seriously study EVERY PIECE OF VINYL in the studio.  There were two Journey albums, the début and "Look Into The Future," both of which blew my scrambled 18-year-old brain.  Might I share a pivotal point in one of those evenings...



While there isn't anything of this caliber on "So U," the same stylings of the three pre-Steve Perry Journey records are apparent, Latin fusion/jazz/rock with some smokin' guitar.  Neil was too much rock for Carlos, but it worked for me.  As does this album.  There is nary a turd in the lot and I made three different notations which all read "This is a very good record."  That in itself is what dooms this to the Heatseekers charts and not the upper echelons of the Top 200.  It's "too rock" for the legions of "Journey fans" but not for this one...