Sam Roberts Band "Collider"

Thanks, Eddie, for bringing this guy to my attention.  That's what it takes, dear readers, to find good tunes in these dark days of popular music (literally 2 out of 3 hits on today's charts are GARBAGE!).  We have to help one another muddle through the aural crap that dominates the airwaves, especially those of you in the older demographics with moi. 

I wondered why I had missed Sam Roberts, especially when Eddie said he was a multiple Juno Award winner (Canadian Grammy), so I investigated the timeline of his history.  Being in music retail in the tourist corridor of Orlando, I had to be patently aware of what was selling worldwide, and maybe, just maybe, I read Sam Roberts name in my Canadian research.  However, his independently released music never made it that far south.  I'm guessing Doxey knew him in Niagara.  Anyway, by the time he hit on a major label I was out of the business.  I believe I would have noticed him winning Album, Artist, and Rock Album of the Year awards in 2004 for that debut LP.  I was in and out of radio again before the next album, which went gold and Top 5 north of the border.  The next album arrived a year before I started this blog, so I missed it as well.  From what I gather, these recordings were much more rock oriented, making the comparisons I read to the Tragically Hip more appropriate.  I certainly heard nothing in the way of the Hip on "Collider."  Now if Blue Rodeo would make an all-pop album, it would certainly be along this style.  In no particular order, here are the other artists this reminded me of; Tom Petty, the Beatles, the Eagles, Huey Lewis & the News, Cracker, maybe a smidgen of Creedence, and one track would make believers out of Dave Matthews fans.  The following is the opening track...

That's the first song I ever heard by this guy and it hooked me!  I must admit that my curiosity about the earlier rock sound my get the best of me, and it's rare that I go backwards in an artist's catalog from my point of entry.  We will see...

Portugal The Man "In The Mountain In The Cloud"

Discovered this band a few years ago through a 2008 year-end "Best Of..." list.  Tried it and liked it enough to add it as one of my Mad Rocker's best discoveries of the year (that's the very first post for the blog...no link, just go look if you're really that interested).  PTM is a prolific bunch, releasing an album a year in their history.  Somehow I completely missed the '09 model, and 2010's "American Ghetto" was a similar, yet different piece, and now "Mountain, Cloud" takes another step in the advancement of their sound.  First of all, they are finally on a major, having earned their way through the DIY method.  What I don't understand is how a major would allow one of their recordings sound as if it was done inside a Progresso soup can.  I'm guessing they let the band have free reign and it's intentional, but I found it quite distracting initially.  They sound much better in the radio station studio setting in the following clip...

Man, that song is infectious.  I haven't been able to get it out of my head since first hearing it.  I still like my "glam-less Scissor Sisters" comparison from the earlier PTM post, and this time I've added Supertramp to the "sounds like" list, primarily due to the vocals.  I also wrote down 10cc this time, which is the next step in the progression of PTM's sound.  Over the course of their six-year existence, they have morphed into something slightly different each time...and me likey.  They get the "neo-psychedelic" label from most publications, and I suppose that's appropriate.  In one track they drop these lines; "We're seven miles high", "All the kids are rubber souls", and "All of the things that have come to pass."  Those are certainly more my generation (hey, that's funny) than the band's.

Maybe if I invested a listen after selected party favours I'd better understand the "psychedelic."

Los Lonely Boys "Rockpango"

Thought I'd give this a try based on the hype and the great cover (seriously, is that not outstanding?).  I own one song by them and it's not Grammy winning "Heaven."  That track launched LLB to a couple of Top 10 Albums, another in the Top 30, and a respectable selling live album.  Guitarist Garza slings a fairly mean axe, and I was really hoping to hear something inspirational in that respect.  What I got was basically what I had expected, Same Ol' Shitola.  

To be fair, it's not all bad.  "Rockpango" fell just a track or two short of keeper status.  This is one of the songs that I thought was fun...

...however, it suffers from familiarity, a trait I found to be prevalent in most Mexican music while working in the retail biz.  Much of LLB's music sounds like everything else in their genre, and others have done it much better than they.  The vocals are simply one-dimensional, for example.  But I don't begrudge their major success on a major label.  It's given them the funding to start their own label and do what they want with zero restrictions, and this is project number one for studio work.  It hasn't sold nearly as well as previous efforts, but that's to be expected without major distribution.  It has garnered very positive reviews over the four months on the market and I suspect we'll hear more from this record soon with the holiday selling season rapidly approaching.

Those of you who know the Mad Rocker are aware of my passion for the import, and the international version of "Rockpango" has an additional track not available domestically, and it's really the reason I kept fifteen minutes or so of the finished CD.  The extra track is twenty+ minutes of studio outtakes from the sessions, and it offers a welcome glimpse into the making of the record.  Imagine sitting in on a jam session where the beers, the bongs and the laughter are plentiful.  You hear the brothers tinkering with several of the tracks in their early stages, even breaking into "Ghostbusters" when one flurry strikes a similar chord.  They ape on Huey Lewis and Van Halen, too.  I couldn't help but grin at the fun being had in the rehearsal.  Had to give them the benefit of the doubt because of it...

Yes "Fly From Here"

Big fan of the first twenty years of this band, including the "Drama" album 30+ years ago, the only other recording Jon Anderson wasn't on before "Fly From Here."  Trevor Horn was the singer on Drama, and he became a massive music presence afterwards as a producer for bands such as ABC, FGTH, Malcolm McLaren, The Art of Noise, etc., and arguably Yes' most popular recording, 90125.  He's still at it today, again as a member of Yes and its producer, and also keyboards and production on the latest Blackfield album.   The 25-minute title track from this new Yes album was actually written for Drama and ultimately rejected, though the band played it live several times on the subsequent tour.  So now that Anderson's health has kept him from the band, the current group is the same one from "Drama," but with another vocalist.  You know the story, the guy was singing in a Yes tribute band...   That's funny, because he doesn't remind me of Anderson much at all.  Anyway, why not take this forgotten track and build a new CD around it?  I get the concept but it really doesn't work.

Which is surprising to me with Horn twisting the knobs and Chris Squire and Steve Howe still in the band.  The record really sounded dated, and why not since half of it's thirty-something years old, but I expected a record that sounded like Yes, not the Alan Parsons Project.  Let's see, 1980 was the year of "The Turn of a Friendly Card" for APP, and "Fly..." sounds more like that than any of the late 70's Yes recordings.  I thought Horn would work some of his magic, but all I hear is a very sterile mix, no fullness, though some of the musicianship is pristine.  There isn't a clear cut radio track available, either, though I like this section of the title track...

"Fly From Here" is like a classical composition reinterpreted by the Bell Telephone Orchestra, or that great Broadway showstopper performed by the fourth touring company for the lovely folks in Butte, Montana, it's an excellent composition that unfortunately suffers in the current production.  Some spots truly shine, but "Fly..." doesn't jell as a whole.

Red Fang "Murder The Mountains"

Liked the first album enough to spring for the second.  If you actually clicked the link to see my brief description, I have very little else to offer from the Motorhead/Black Sabbath/Cheap Trick references of before.  Somehow the Northwest angle crept into my mind knowing these guys are from Oregon, and yes, I know Seattle is in a different state, but I kept thinking to myself that if Dave Grohl had concentrated strictly on metal in his days in Nivana Fighters, he would've sounded like Red Fang... 

Funny video as I smiled the entire six minutes.  PBR fans, too.  I see they are coming to Orlando opening for Mastodon, and that's an inspired booking.  If I can find a way in to see what will surely be a short set without having to ante up for a full-price ticket or have to stay for the whole bill, I promise to raise a PBR or two to them (that's if HOB sells PBR...).

Gomez "Whatever's On Your Mind"

I was a fan of these guys right out of the gate in '98, eventually owning four of the six studio releases prior to this album.  And I've decided to keep that number at four.  I heard the first single, "Options", and thought it sounded like Blur.  Not a bad introduction, just surprising.  But as I rounded into my third spin of "Whatever's On Your Mind", disappointment was on mine.  Gone was the edginess, the adventurousness, the experimental take on things.  Well, maybe not completely gone but certainly diminished.  If you enjoy light, puffy, pop music, then this dud's for you.  I jotted down a note about researching possible strife in the band alignment as my favorite of the three singers, Ben Ottewell, seemed less involved, and it's his voice that distinguishes Gomez for moi.  He's the lead singer on this new video for the title track, one of only two I will keep from this record... 

And I discovered that the members are based multiple time zones apart from each other.  So "let's all do our own songs separately, email them to each other, meet somewhere in the middle and see what sticks."  I know that's a SOP for some bands, and it's worked on many occasions, but not this one. 
One track is a dead-ringer for Barenaked Ladies.  That's not a bad thing, this coming from a BNL fan from Day 1, but I didn't expect it on a Gomez record.  I also heard a smidgen of Blue October (really looking forward to hearing their new record), but again, it's out of place here. 

I hope this doesn't signal the end of the run for Gomez.  I think I will investigate Ottewell's solo album that came out a few months ago.  I had no knowledge of such before now, and I wonder if I'll like it better...