Brown Paper Bag. DIIV
DIIV
has been more often on this blog than I remember. The one I forgot is the LP I
bought in 2019 'Deceiver'. 'Oshin' in 2012 and 'Is The The Are' from
2016 all came before this single. The music has not changed much from
what I remember. DIIV still plays slow and dark, slightly psychedelic
rock music. Zachary Cole Smith still sings with a soft voice, hovering
above the band. He still takes his time to produce a new album. Four
years, three years, five years. I know the sixties and early 70s are
long over. This is the new normal. Also five years down the road, I dive
into the band's new single with glee. DIIV simply knows how to play
this music right and provides Brown Paper Bag with the little notes and
slow riffs that make it so much fun to listen to. It's time to pull
'Deceiver' from its shelf, until the new album is released. 'Frog In
Boiling Water' is released on 24 May.
The
Mysterines is a band from the U.K. and active since 2015 but with
'Afraid Of Tomorrows' only releases its second full length album, after
'Reeling' (2022). The name did not ring a bell but it turns out I wrote a
favourable review of the single 'Begin Again' late spring last year.
It's not surprising I did, as Stray is a delightfully sleazy alternative
rock song. The Mysterines do not for one second pretend to be
respectable. Singer Lia Metcalfe's voice receives a treatment making her sound
a bit mechanical. Just like the guitars get a dirty treatment. Just
listen to that little solo and the eruptions. The rhythm is tight
keeping the song confined as it were, with the chorus escaping that
straightjacket in a gloriously convincing way. Sure, poprock aficionados
will recognise enough familiar sounds. Stray is a nice addition to
what's already out there.
"Hello,
who's that speaking please?", is the opening of my first or second The
Kinks single's B-side called 'Party Line', still one of my favourite The
Kinks songs. Girl And Girl's first single of its upcoming debut album
'Call A Doctor' (24 May) is also about a phone call and also an up tempo
song, somewhere between happiness, the tempo/music, and despair, the lyrics. Hello is a
bouncing song, making it easy to mistake for a happy song instead of the
darkness that shows in the lyrics about a "private hell". Just listen to how the
song begins with two sprightly guitars, the band joins and a third lead
guitar comes in. Better described perhaps as the higher of the two
guitars playing two different riffs. The Australians, Kai James (singer,
guitarist), his Aunty Liss (drums), Jayden Williams (guitar) en Fraser
Bell (bass), may be tormented in the lyrics, in the music they push all
the right buttons to get a crowd moving. Hello is an excellent
introduction, with even a reference to 'The Sound Of Music', if
I'm not mistaken.
Bonny
Light Horseman is trio Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson, and Josh
Kaufman. They signed with Jagjaguwar and to celebrate release the single
When I Was Younger. 30 or early 40 somethings looking back on when life
was fun. Lighten up, because they certainly can become fun again when
the brats get a little older. When I Was Younger's mood is exactly as if
the times of being 20 are over forever. They are, but 40 up certainly
has its fun moments. The lyrics between Anaïs Mitchell and Eric D.
Johnson are divided in the way it probably is between a woman and a man.
The former resigned to having children, the latter more desperate,
tearing at the leash, far more in pain of the loss. In the "aah" section
over the harsh guitar solo in the twine they meet. It all contrasts
with the looseness with which the rhythm section and piano play their
parts, with a starring roll for Cameron Ralston, the bassist. He's so
relaxed and has seemingly encountered the 40 up phase fun.
Gramercy
Arms enters this blog for the third time with a single. Once again the
band around Dave Derby and producer Ray Ketchum manages to blend
glorious pop from the past with a good sense of urgency for the now and
then. The band makes music like it was made in the first half of the 90s
by bands like The Caulfields and The Loud Family. U.S. pop-rock music with a touch
bordering on Beatleslesque. Just listen to the harmonies in After The
After Party and the directness of the music. This is 90s indie rock
alright. With a nice, almost tough guitar solo over a rhythm section
that is definitely rocking. In the approach to making music and
musically Gramercy Arms reminds me of the Canadian - U.S. collective The
New Pornographers. The pop element in both band's music is always
sticking out, while they both know how to rock as well. Late in April
the album will be released, 'The Making Of the Making Of'. Based on this
single, it something worth waiting for.
Another
debut band and debut single. Faulty Cognitions is a band from San
Antonio in Texas, formed after singer Chris Mason relocated from
Portland, Oregon to the Lone Star State. He formed a band there with his
long time friend Yole Centeno and others. The result is a melodic
alternative rock song, close to punkrock. The upcoming album's title
'Somehow, Here We Are' may tell it all. Against all odds the four have
formed a band and are playing like they've not only always done so but
also as if they do not have a host of experience in other bands and
everything left to prove. The title Sad Sack should be understood in the context of "another sad sack song" that
the band hopes you will sing along to anyway. Chances are you will. If you are a
fan of the likes of Buffalo Tom there's no escaping even. A faulty
cognition is not be applicable to Sad Sack.
.%20Patrick%20Watson.jpg)
Perfect
Day was never a single, let alone a hit for Lou Reed. 'Transformer' is
one of Reed's best loved albums, given the push by the Bowie-Ronson
production, Bowie's voice in 'Satellite Of Love' and the hit 'Walk On
The Wild Side'. Through the decades Perfect Day became better and better
known and loved for the fantastic ballad it is. Recognition sometimes
takes time to receive and Perfect Day has received it. Patrick Watson
has released a piano only version of the song. The song is in the style
of, what I disrespectfully call, the modern piano tinklers style. Recorded
with loads of reverb and echo on the piano, while playing slow notes. It
will come as no surprise that Perfect Day remains a beautiful
composition. It may even come across more subtly this way than ever
before. Watson adds melodic notes to the vocal melody enhancing the
power of the melody no little. A perfect rendition this version of
Perfect Day is.
I
think there are two UB40s today. This is the one with the elder
Campbell brother in it and most of the original members. UB40 came into
my life with the single 'Food For Thought'. Although I did (and have)
not a lot with reggae music, this single resonated with me, as did many
other singles that followed through the years. I even have a few albums
and saw them live in 1983 as support act for David Bowie. After 'Rat In
Me Kitchen' the band sort of drifted from my conscience, into that state
where a single comes by on a radio or something here or there. I was
surprised to find the announcement of a new single on my digital
doorstep. For old times sake, I decided to give it a listen. 44 years
after 'Food For Thought' the band sounds like the veterans they are.
Nothing much happens but all is played in (very) good taste. UB40 knows
how to please its fans and most likely does. Robin Campbell and new
singer Matt Doyle come close to Ali's delivery, so the band is alright
here as well. They will not get me back as a distanced fan but I will
certainly not turn of the radio should Gimme Some Kinda Sign come by.
Belgian
duo Lovelorn Dolls returns to the blog with this huge song called A
Heart Cries. The song uses dynamic to the max. The verses softer and the
chorus as big as if 'The Final Countdown' is rewritten as an electronic
anthem. Kristell Lowagie's voice gets a metallic, slightly ghostly
treatment matching the long held synth chords underneath the chorus
and intro/interludes. Bernard Daubresse's music shows how he has been
influenced by (Nordic) 1990s bands with a love for Teutonic greatness.
He knows how to pump up musical muscles till the sinews nearly snap. The
music gets a metal feel, yet is far too melodic to be real metal. A
trick Rammstein plays to great success, without wanting to compare the
two acts. Lovelorn Dolls as Rammstein's opening act is totally
imaginable though. A Heart Cries is a big song in several ways.
We finish this week with a dose of good old rock and roll from and for the first quarter of the 21st century from California's Slamdinistas. Like Dirty Sweet from San Diego around 20 years ago, this band rocks with a nice raspy edge to the singers voice and a slide guitar to top things off. Get Back To Myself may not be a song that I play in my living room every day but is played by a band that I would love to see live one day. A beer in one hand and the other up in the air, with a mouth that can't decide between the beer and singing along, with my mind telling me softly in the back of my head, you better finish up the beer now before it's all spilled thanks to the enthusiasm around you. Get Back To Myself is that kind of song and Slamdinistas that kind of band. It's all good, honest and full of rock and roll quality.
Wout de Natris
No comments:
Post a Comment