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Everyone. Voom
Voom could be found on this blog in the first week of this year, with its first release in quite some time. Where 'We Don't Care' was described as a grungy song, Everyone is an alternative singer-songwriter song with a Beatlesque undertone swimming in a form of acoustic grunge. The beginning is long, circa a minute long. After an instrumental intro, Voom bursts into the chorus straight away, and elaborating on it as well. When the verse starts, also the intricate background vocals are introduced. Everyone has the kind of chorus that anyone can sing along to near instantly. The delicate playing and great singing endeared me to the song immediately. Add the little extras that shine through the music every once in a while and Voom has me alright. The only criticism here is the ending. Sorry, but couldn't you have used a little imagination here? It's a real shame for such a nice song. But then, it's the end I'm complaining about -:).
It
is well over three years since Lauren Mann's last album 'Memory &
Desire' was on this blog. Today she returns with a soft folk ballad
together with Johnny Aitkin with whom she wrote the song. As always,
Lauren Mann's voice steals the show. It has a quality that makes me want
to listen to her more. Medicine though is not about Lauren's voice but
about the story it tells about the situation of indigenous people on the
island she lives on ("Lauren of the Island"). It's about them and their call for
medicine. This is only the easy message. I also hear a call for medicine against are
modern world and what it destroys on the indigenous lands, land that
needs healing. Mann and Aitkin have caught this message in a beautiful
song, that is adorned by the playing of Adam Iredale-Gray, fiddle,
percussion and what not, besides the keyboards most likely played by
Lauren Mann and the acoustic guitar by Aitkin. With Medicine Lauren Mann
once again shows that far more people ought to know her name by
now.
Inmiddels
is de debuut EP van Hiigo al een maand uit. De single komt vandaag pas
aan de beurt hier. Ik zal zeggen dat het niet veel had gescheeld of er
had niets gestaan, over Hiigo dan. Het eerste couplet klonk mij teveel als een
mix van Bløf en Racoon in de oren (niet mijn bands). Het refrein is nog
steeds pop, maar van een steviger soort, waar een nog oudere band als
Toontje Lager om de hoek komt kijken. De mix van de twee werkt dus wel,
merk ik. Daardoor ben ik beter gaan luisteren en hoor hoe lekker de
muziek onder de coupletten klinkt. De eerste indruk betrof toch vooral
de zang. Als geheel klinkt Alles Begint Bij Vandaag wel iets glad, zoals
jaren 80 bands dat deden (nog steeds doen natuurlijk). En dan komt die gitaarsolo. Net als
Sander van Herk Het Goede Doel echt tot leven kon brengen, zo doet Dion
van der Geest dat bij Hiigo. Ja, dat is heel veel jaren 80 in deze
recensie, maar zo klinkt de band gewoon.
The best singer in the world? Undoubtedly not. The best musicians is the world? Certainly not. Combined The Lost Weekend Band is the best bar and bluesrock festival band anyone could wish for. You will have heard it all before and yet you will find yourself singing along, dancing, jumping up and down and drink a few beers like you once used to. Where bands like The Black Crowes and Stevie Vaughan and Double Trouble, a few great songs apart, always sounded too forced to me to truly like, The Lost Weekend Band simply does what bands like The Rolling Stones and The Faces were so good at over 50 years ago: rock with R&B old style worked in. The surprise is that some of the band members have their legacy in punk and hardcore bands like Agnostic Front and Slipknot. This music, honky tonk country and rock, could not be much further apart. The songs on this EP are powerful. Perhaps that is a result of the past experiences. With a ballad in the middle and an acoustic outing at the end, One Hell Of A Time is even diverse. The way the EP opens is something no one takes away from us rockers. What counts overall, is the warmth in the sound of the whole EP. It simply shines with the love for this kind of roots music.
Todd
Congelliere played in bands and then had a bunch of songs on his hands
that didn't fit these bands and were stuck on a demo called Clown
Sounds. We are speaking of 2010. Come 2024 there is a band called Clown
Sounds, since 2017, and it has released a nice punky rocking single
called Tuck Belly Up. It is a powerful affair without overdoing it. Two
guitars set the sound, panned left and right in the mix playing a riff
that is as strong as it is effective. In between the bass echoes the
guitars and the drums keep everything going with force and enthusiasm.
The nasal, punky voice makes the exact right sound for this bouncy,
sprightly song. The album is called 'Par For The Curse' and will be
released on 12 July.
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Opening
You Tube to start working on this week's singles again, the first song
presented to me is a new release, on 28 June, by Motorpsycho. I clicked anyway, which
I usually do not as I'm diligently sticking to the order of this list.
And here Motorpsycho is, skipping the line, because it is Motorpsycho
but also because the song is so tremendously different from what the
Norwegians present in general. Long spun-out experimental tracks. All My
Life (I Love You) is not even 3.30 minutes! It has a clear beginning,
middle and ending. The only information shown by the video is
Motorpsycho - Alexander Lee Spence. Skip Spence, the first Jefferson
Airplane drummer, Moby Grape member, solo album 'Oar' and mental patient
homeless man who died in ...? Wiki answers yes and Spence died in 1999.
Motorpsycho's rendition has a huge sound, just listen to the big bass
sound and drumming. The singing is totally different than usual, as it has that
folky-pop upbeat style that was popular in the 1960s. All My Life (I
Love You) is not the best song around but it does have a great feel
about it and Motorpsycho makes that jump out. Great single.
Back
to New Zealand. Flying Nun Records is about to release Mystery
Waitress' second album, 'Bright Black Night'. Nightbug is the first
single and again I can't help but musing how it's possible that so many
strong and especially female artists come from this relatively small
country and so isolated in the world? The band is a new name on the
blog, so let me introduce the band first. It consists of songwriter and
guitarist Tessa Dillon, Olivia Campion on drums, Xanthe Rook on bass
guitar, and James Morgan on synths and guitar. Dillon has got a story to
tell in Nightbug. She is hellbound to make the same mistake twice and
lets us know in a forceful way. Nightbug is an alternative rocksong
with some pop in the middle. Somewhere between Melanie Brooks' 'Bitch'
and a couple of Hole songs Nightbug has found the middle ground where it
is nice to be in. I will not mind hearing the album, I'm sure.
No Strangers. FEDERALE
In the bio accompanying No Strangers the name of the late Lee Hazelwood is mentioned and listening to the single, it is immediately clear why. It's in the way of singing, not the depth of voice as Collin Hegna has no chance of matching that. Secondly, it is the mix of pop and country the music presents. Just listen to how the strings are allowed to swirl thorough the song. Thirdly, it is the lyrics that tell the kind of story Hazelwood could have presented. There are differences as well. Nancy is missing for one but more importantly the sound is bigger, the drums louder. Now, I do not know most of Hazelwood's work, I have one solo album, but what I do know does not resemble the full sound of FEDERALE. No Strangers in that sense is huge. Following the previous single 'Heaven Forgive Me', it makes two out of two. 'Reverb & Seduction' (12 July) ought to be very much worthwhile.
Has
Dogs Die In Hot Cars singer Craig Macintosh or perhaps the whole band,
moved to New Zealand? That question crept into my mind listening to New
Life, the new 7" released single of Ringlets. It has that selfsame rhythm
in the songs that makes it sound different and yet somehow be a pop
song at the same time. And then that voice?! New Life immediately stuck
with me, for the same reason the first six, seven songs of 'Please
Describe Yourself' did exactly 20 years ago. Both came as a bit of a
surprise. Looking at the names, Arabella Poulsen, Arlo Grey, László
Reynolds, Leith Towers, the immigration is not the case. In the meantime
New Life is a song to enjoy. It is alive alright and like many animals
capable of running immediately. I had never heard of Ringlets but the
introduction does beg for more.
How Bizarre is a cover of OMC, a song totally unknown to me. In 1995 I was not on the internet yet, so how could I ever have heard of the Flying Nun store, label and newsletter alerting me to great music from down under? This is the fourth song from New Zealand this week and that tells you all how things have changed in the past decades. Reb Fountain is almost a veteran of this blog in 2024. Ever since her self-titled album she finds her way to these pages with ease. Her music is always somewhere between earth and something else. This is no different on How Bizarre. Her voice is up front with behind her a piano playing the same three chords over and over. The rest is more vague and completely at the back that typical Reb Fountain atmospherics that somehow always is in the background of her music and brings that mystery to her music. It always gets to me and How Bizarre is no different, no matter how deep down this is a very simple song. It's how it is presented that makes it stand out. Can Reb Fountain ever go wrong? I doubt it.
Wout de Natris
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