Rare Earth. Vacation
Rare
Earth used to be a band, sorry is a band. It had two well-known songs, both covers, 'Get
Ready' and '(I Know) I'm Losing You'. Here it is the title of
Vacation's first single of the upcoming album, 'Rare Earth'. Vacation
may spend its time in the musical past, but far removed from the circa 1970 sound
of Rare Earth. Expect to be taken back to the 1990s. Grunge, Britpop is
what Vacation presents here. The song begins and ends with a nice guitar
melody that sends a listener straight back to the days when the guitar
became popular once again very fast. To me Vacation is a new name. I
learn that the band has released eight(!) previous albums. There's no time for
catching up I'm afraid. Based on Rare Earth it seems I have missed
something through the years. Vacation knows how to blend in familiar
features into its music that rocks no little. Rare Earth is a nice song.
Not
unknown to these pages, Gramercy Arms returns to this blog with a nice
country-tinged single called Never Say Anything. An acoustic guitar
drives the song, with around it a soft electric guitar playing these
nice little licks and a pedal steel guitar providing the country feel as
if someone is about to start crying. Dave Derby and producer Ray
Ketchum have laid down a perfect mood for this song. Sometimes a song
provides a certain feel and it can be enough. Of course, everyone on
this single can play well, just listen to the nice guitar solos weaving
into each other. That is not what Never Say Anything is about. It is
about getting this song across. "Close your eyes and not say anything",
that is the message the song shares with the listener. A wise
advise, as this is exactly the way to enjoy the nice mood Gramercy Arms
provides. Let me change that just a little. 'Close your eyes and just
listen'.
Who
is Eric Din? I have no idea. What I do know, is that he knows The
Velvet Underground and David Bowie. They both shimmer straight through
On Top Of The World. This song could have been written in the mid to
late 60s. Din wrote the song mostly inside of his head where it turned
over and over for a long time. When he started to record it things fell
into place fast. And then it took some percussion, as you can hear in
the song. On Top Of The World appears as a song that is somewhere between
professional and amateur. Don't be fooled by that one moment where the
song appears to be falling apart. That moment aside, On Top Of The World
is nice and rich in sound. It has that The Velvet Underground style guitar playing and
the early Bowie just creeps in here and there. And Eric Din? He plays in
a band called The Uptones and records music for himself as well. His
Bandcamp page (https://ericdin.bandcamp.com/) is filled with songs and
albums.
Kate
MacLeod returns to the blog with a special single released for this
reason: "In recognition of National Missing and Murdered Indigenous
Women’s Day which falls annually on May 5". The message is harrowing. "I
am the woman you will never know", including the ghostlike repeating.
MacLeod manages to catch the mood to show how serious this topic is.
She's not alone in this. Carla Halverson Eskelsen, joins her on vocals
with far deeper voice than the more traditional country voice of
MacLeod. Bob Smith plays percussion and Robert Dow the acoustic bass.
So, I guess Kate MacLeod plays the violin herself, as this is a quite
prominent instrument in The Woman You Will Never Know. The single falls
nicely in the folk tradition of telling stories that often do not end
well. Above all, it is proof that activism can go together with beauty.
Kate MacLeod manages to share an important message within a beautiful
song.
It
is starting to seem like country music is the theme of this week. And
believe me, it is purely coincidental. Besides, what are the chances of
having the name Ketchum twice in the same post? See above under Gramercy
Arms. Tylor & The Train Robbers features Tylor Ketchum. The band
presents a country song that has enough pop and rock elements within it
to please more than just one musical genre. Someone like me can
crossover easily. Sailing Song has a nice slide guitar part and a very
warm organ sound sailing into the song regularly. This band is of the
kind who seem to do things simply right without having to play any
tricks or add special effects. Tylor & The Train Robbers let the
song do the talking and succeeds with ease.
The
Dotted Line is a strange song. A verse that is extremely strained is
followed by a chorus out of a past 1965 play book and yet it does not
follow the dotted line left behind by bands from that past like The Kinks or The Small Faces. In a way I'm left with the feeling that the three
that make up The Spackles, Marie Slurrie - guitar, vocals / Phil
McKraken - drums / Brian "Spackle" McKraken - bass vocals, have heard
small snippets of famous songs, without ever having heard the context and started to learn themselves
play from there. This results in some very great moments alternated
with sheer chaos. This makes The Dotted Line as fascinating as it is
strange to listen to. I'm still not certain which is winning though.
All
In One is bunch of nerves. The whole band seem to be on edge, with the
drummer in the worst state of all. Been Stellar expresses itself from a
position where there seems to be no rest and no way to relax. Just
listen what happens around one minute and ten seconds. Should I have to
listen to this sequence for much longer, I truly would be jumping out of
the window. I can imagine a liveshow where the stroboscopes would be
blasting full on for half a minute, driving everyone mad. Been Stellar
is from NYC and about to release its new album in June, 'Scream From New
York, NY'. The band makes a statement with All In One. The song lasts
for a little over five minutes and knows a few different sides. Towards
the end straightforward alternative rock slips in, like I heard on the previous single, 'Passing
Judgement', see week 13. Having listened to the song a few times, it
seems to draw me in anyway, but it was close to being discarded.
An
album was here five years ago and there was one single almost three years
ago. Fink returns to the blog with a strong single. What Would You Call
Yourself reminds me of early Coldplay, a song like 'Clocks'. When a
song comes close to a banger like 'Clocks', Fink must be doing something
right. His single has this driving force. It is already in the
relatively empty beginning. It's not truly empty. The instruments are
sort of mixed in a stacked way, so they all seems to come from the same
source. And then the song opens like a flower in bloom. (Wasn't that a Fink
album title?) That driving rhythm does not change, the song just widens and
widens making it ever stronger. I'm almost sorry for that 'Clocks'
reference, as What Would You Call Yourself has an inner strength all
from itself but perhaps the comparison helps to bring people over to
What Would You Call Yourself. It deserves it totally.
Alternative rocker Blondshell or Sabrina Mae Teitelbaum returns to this blog with a nice rocking single. She receives support from a singer called Bully, a name totally unknown to me. Teitelbaum explains that after writing Docket she kept hearing Bully's voice inside her head. No longer, as we can now all hear her contribution. It appears to me that it was not only Bully she heard, as parts of the verse start another song inside my head, from some post-punk band or other from around 2000. The song goes off in other directions so there's nothing to worry about. Docket rocks with the right amounts of light and shade in it to make the song more interesting. The same goes for the voices. Blondshell and Bully's duet make Docket more interesting than if it had only been either of the two. The ending is abrupt and the final line "my worst nightmare is he", does give cause for reflection to whoever that he is. And Bully? This is now the solo project, former trio, of singer Alicia Bognanno. Now you know all.
Only a few weeks back we had Keith Richards covering Lou Reed's 'I'm Waiting For My Man', that originally holds John Cale's bass or piano of course. Last month John Cale turned 82 but is not calling it quits yet. On 14 June his new album is released called 'POPtical Illusion'. How We See The Light is a fairly modern sounding song, sung by an old man with an old voice. Cale recorded his voice a few times to give it more power as a whole. The sound of the song is dense. An instrument is allowed to escaped for a moment to be drawn back into the whole. Over and under it are more mysterious sounds, almost ghostlike, like the wind blowing through something providing background noise. How We See The Light holds a faint trace to the most driving songs of The Velvet Underground in the way the piano is played, but does not hold any of that band's energy. Although this track is fine to listen to, it is also the last spark of a once fierce fire. John Cale is still at it and rightly so. Just as long as you do not expect fireworks.
Wout de Natris
Shadow Changes. Kate MacLeod
Without
looking I clicked on the video You Tube presented me and was baffled by
the beauty presented to me. Unwittingly I was listening to Shadow
Changes by Kate MacLeod. A song from 2001 put on You Tube in 2015.
Here's what I had written before I found out that the single I wanted to
review was not released yet on the time of writing. Shadow Changes is too
beautiful to ignore.
Time for a little singer-songwriter and folk music. Kate MacLeod was on this blog in the past two years with the Jean Richie experience songs she recorded. Today she returns with a special song "In Recognition of National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s Day", which falls on 5 May this year. The song starts with a beautifully clear recorded country guitar. Kate MacLeod's voice follows and that is the sort of moment the world stops for a few minutes. I'm listening to sheer beauty for three and a half minute.
(And then I found out, reading about contributions that I did not hear on this song. And
yes, I've heard many songs like this before, but this is the bonus one
that always comes along at some point. Sheer beauty it is.) WdN
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