Blue October-Any Man in America

Blue October
Any Man in America
(c)2011Blue October

Far be it from me to ever ignore art born of pain. My all time favorite band is Joy Division, I love the paintings of Van Gogh, and I generally gravitate towards things from a less than sanguine perspective. I can't exactly recall how I ended up downloading Blue October's Any Man in America from iTunes. Many times when I sift through iTunes the path I take is less than direct. I did sample a few songs and Justin Furstenfeld's voice sort of leapt out at me, hints of Peter Gabriel at his most emotive with a whiskey edge to it. The instrumentation was epic and sweeping, the production crisp and modern.
I put it on my iPod and listen to it while driving through a gray, rainy morning to one of my business accounts. The relentless gloom of the day does not abate.

It doesn't take long as by the second actual song, the lyrics drop into confessional narrative and the pain begins to ooze out of the music. Occasional reverb drenched samples drift between songs, including a child's distressed voice. Justin does not address his situation in artistically veiled subtlety, "For the Love" is almost horrific in recounting his wife's boyfriend attending her first Lamaze class in his place and living in a hotel room until his daughter's birth. He isn't shy to drop some f-bombs or painfully blunt assessment of the interloper in his situation. There's an odd influx of hip-hop influence at times, some of it sounds like Eminem or something with Justin rapping over some well constructed beds of electronics. If one song can have me feeling better about the $9.99 bundle of bleakness it's the song "The Chills". This is one gigantic song. It's probably not his best vocal performance of the album, as it's more of an anthem that he pushes a bit on, but it's a fist pumping song with a great hook in it. It rivals some of my favorite anthems by bands like The Sheila Divine, U2 and their ilk.

There is a palpable sense of despair and anger that permeates this album like none other I can compare it to. None of it feels contrived or calculated which makes it, frankly, kind of horrific, maybe even pornographic, as you feel you're being allowed to view something that's too intimate to be shared as an uninvolved observer. It honestly left me in a funk, it's that powerful.
The songwriting and instrumental performances are very strong, modern rock borrowing from many genres and influences, and none of it feels ill conceived although the rap thing leaves me a bit cold.

3.5/5 kilts
DAA
September 2011

Haydon Spencely-Heart Strings
Knuci records 11/22/2010 release date
http://www.facebook.com/haydon.spenceley


Oh my goodness.
How I do I review an album that sounds like an amalgam of every band I ever loved back in the early 80's? This is madness, I mean there's no way Hadyon is familiar with Canadian bands like The Spoons, Rational Youth or Images in Vogue. It's doubtful he's familiar with much of the music he conjures the ghosts of on Heart Strings. I suppose using TR 606/808 samples (or perhaps even the real thing) do trigger memories of certain songs from a bygone era.
Haydon does so many things right this time. He keeps his vocals up front and well mixed/mastered, enough processing and EQ to make them clear and understandable. My criticism of his last album was that the vocals didn't take a break, there was not breathing room. This time the songs are constructed in a way that emphasizes the vocals and lyrics by having instrumental breaks that punctuate the importance of what Haydon is actually putting forth lyrically on Heart Strings.
There is a certain sense of longing in Lost My Heart that is well done, avoiding cliché and suiting the down tempo instrumental bed.
Lay It Down has an epic quality and when it ends at 2:43, it leaves you wanting more.
I'll resist the temptation to review each track, go out and buy the cd.
This is a big leap forward in musical maturity from Circles. It feels unhurried in it's execution, a man with confidence and a definite idea of what he wants to put forth before he even fires up the console for his first session.
This is a very, very solid effort

9/10

DAA

Deas Vail

Deas Vail
Birds And Cages
©2009 Mono Vs Stereo Records
www.deasvail.com


Morrissey, Prince, and Bono pretty strange bedfellows, no? They all use falsetto as a vocal device in their singing generally to add emotion or emphasis. Done sparingly, by somebody who has the vocal chops, it's a very effective and musically interesting device.

Wes Blaylock can sing, I mean, really sing. Spot on and in control, his voice is up front and given the frequency elbowroom it commands. He does sing in falsetto, weaving in and out like a soul singer filtered through an alt rock sieve he comes out on the other side sounding both convincing and in control.

The band is tight and sounds fully developed, certainly mature and locked down as only an ensemble who know each other can move. The recording is crisp, and while the bedrock is pretty traditional in terms of bass/guitar/drums, there are keys and orchestral flourishes that add interest rather than detract from their sound.

Overall it's a mid-tempo affair. It stays within the confines of vaguely introspective but without sacrificing it's brilliant sheen for a dip in the road suffered under the weight of melancholia.
My only real criticism is that it never reaches out and grabs me. The songs are very, very finely crafted and the elements that make up their sound are lacking nothing in terms of either chops or the production to show their competence. There is no “show stopper” for me on this. I seem to fall into the trap of expecting a mature or genre conscious band to break ranks for a song. I wouldn't even go that far with this, maybe one song with just solo piano and voice?

File this one under modern alt pop. Anyhow, minor quibbles over a very fine release from Deas Vail. Stay together and write your White Album next..................

8/10
Dean A Arnold
August 2010

Bill vs. NW missing parts....

*Not sure why this got cut off at the end of my last blog....
Lewis Carroll said "I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person." I think that explains some of this. It was an era and it was a fashion, and it was a mind set, and........it was my foolish heart that all conspired to allow me to actually like some of this stuff.
There's a ton of similar artists and albums from that era that were victims of cross pollenation attempts like that. It's even been suggested that The Game by Queen was their response to the revolution in music at the time.
Anyhow, I guess that sometimes music takes you back to an era, other times it just kind of stops the bus briefly and a few passengers get off and a few get on.
Cheers,
D

Billy Joel vs. the new wave

Funny how music has the ability to time warp you right back to a long gone era. I was listening to old albums the other day and pulled out Glass Houses by Billy Joel. Let me say straight away that BJ's early body of work was pretty respectable. A very gifted songwriter, perhaps the analog of across the pond's Elton John in many ways. Billy Joel's work always seemed to carry a bit of NYC swagger and a touch of the angry young artist. He could switch gears and write anything from an anthem to a respectable ballad.
Punk turned the music industry upside down. It deconstructed the myth that music could only be made by the elite or gifted. Very quickly the labels, as well as the established artists, were faced with a creative dilemma-"how do we remain relevant?" For many it didn't matter, bands like the Eagles or Journey just plowed ahead without missing a beat. For some, even a band like Fleetwood Mac, oddities like Tusk were proffered. A strange beast that contained some very contrived sounding attempts at the "new wave" sound. Very odd indeed because the "new wave" itself was a pretty limited affair in terms of bands and time frame.
So then BJ puts out Glass Houses. It's a very odd duck indeed. I would be lying if I told you I knew how old Beej was at that point but I'm guessing well into his 30's. The snappy little tunes like It's Still Rock and Roll To Me and It's Just a Fantasy try very hard to fit the blueprint of the new wave, quirky with silly subject matter and angular rhythms. It makes me blush a bit because I think I actually liked this album at one point. I have no beef with Bill over this, I'm guessing that existing in a town that churned out Television, The Talking Heads, Blondie, The Ramones, Patti Smith, CBGB's, the Bottom Line, and a myriad of others probably provided some true inspiration. And, as a gifted artist he put his spin on it but it sounds pretty funny now.
Lewis Carroll said "I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person." I think that explains some of this. It was an era and it was a fashion, and it was a mind set, and........it was my foolish heart that all conspired to allow me to actually like some of this stuff.
There's a ton of similar artists and albums from that era that were victims of cross pollination attempts like that. It's even been suggested that The Game by Queen was their response to the revolution in music at the time.
Anyhow, I guess that sometimes music takes you back to an era, other times it just kind of stops the bus briefly and a few passengers get off and a few get on.
Cheers,
D

A quick eulogy

Sad to see Patrick Swayze pass away. He was in one of my "guilty pleasure" movies-Point Break, the rest of the stuff didn't really capture my fancy.
Perhaps in the jetwash of his passing the media missed out on the death of poet/musician Jim Carroll. Most semi-hipsters have seen The Basketball Diaries but how many have actually read the book? Not for the faint of heart, Jim was a heroin addict at a very young age and a male hustler to feed his habit. Eventually he kicked the drugs.
Known more in the late 70's for his poetry he morphed into a musician eventually. His first stab at commercial success was Catholic Boy. It still sounds fresh to me today. It's just a great album of hard rock and his dead pan talking/singing prose over it. I suppose the closest analog would be Patti Smith and her early albums. It did spawn a small hit with People Who Died, likely as more of a novelty/one hit wonder kind of deal but the rest of the album is really solid. Not chainsaw Ramones type stuff or ventures into Television type guitar jams but somewhere as an amalgam of both but really not copping either one's style to the point of being a ripoff.
There were a couple other albums after that and Jim does a short guest spot on a Rancid song from Out Comes the Wolves but his music output was pretty sporadic after that.
So it goes, Jim Carroll, dead of an MI at age 60.

Photoside Cafe

Photoside Café
The Beauty Of Innocence Remains.
©2009 Grrr Records
HYPERLINK "http://www.photosidecafe.com" www.photosidecafe.com

The Cannyshark came back from Cornerstone 2009 with glowing reviews of Photoside Café and their live set. Okay, I was all ears (and apparently eyes in this case). We sat down and he showed the video he’d shot. Pretty compelling stuff: a super tight band, great rhythm section, and a violinist who took the traditional place of a 2nd guitarist. Very good players, all very competent, and the devotion to their craft was evident. So, the Cannyshark asks if I’d like to review their CD for my blog, sure…

Studio recordings are very different beasts than the live arena. Some bands just never reach the level set by their live set when turned loose in the strange wonderland of the studio. Photoside Café does a decent job. Live, their dynamic sound creates power and an epic, dramatic sound. On the studio recording it sometimes translates, other times, it starts to sound like drama for drama’s sake. The studio recording is pretty plan vanilla, it begs for some space to play out the interplay of the instrumentation and the vocals. It gets this on “Sweet Fascination”, a great down tempo piece with keys and powerful use of the violin. Other tracks are solid, most are of mid to up tempo with interesting and off the beaten path melodies and more complex than usual instrumentation. None of it feels forced, occasionally a little overwrought, but this is nitpicking by me.

Hard to pigeonhole this band, and that’s a good thing. Occasionally jazzy, other times veering towards prog or fusion, but never lapsing into chops over song territory.
Bravo to Photoside Café for taking their own path.

I like this CD, I hope they continue to evolve musically, and I’d definitely try to see them live if they happen upon our little corner of the country.

8/10 kilts
DAA