I became aware of Palm Daze when I saw them open for Bayonne in Tucson, Arizona earlier this year. They played a cool blend of electro and psychedelia that I enjoyed. Controls is a five-song EP they put out two years ago that sounds like it could’ve been released yesterday.
The weird warping synths of “Angles Pt. 1” get the EP off to a trippy start, and then “Company Calls” takes us into full synth wave mode with bright keys, distant vocals, and sharp beats. “Angles Pt. 2” seems to nod at Vangelis‘ Blade Runner score, and why not? The synths move like slow waves across a mountain lake and the vocal effects turn the lyrics into alien communications. The title track has near hip hop drum beats behind video game synths, and “Everything, Everyday” ends the EP with big, bold synths that fade into sounds like a dwindling Morse code message.
It’s an interesting EP and one that produces different thoughts upon multiple listens.
Keep your mind open.
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Friends Jerome Deupree (percussion and drums), Dana Colley (saxophone, harmonica, and vocals), and Jeffrey Lyons (bass, banjo, guitar, vocals) got together in 2009 to start working on some shows and to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the death of Deupree and Colley’s friend (and in Dupree and Colley’s case, former bandmate in Morphine), Mark Sandman. They decided to play some Morphine tracks and other songs they’d written, and demand for more gigs soon grew to the point where they decided to record a record as The Ever Expanding Elastic Waste Band. This would be a couple years before they changed the name to Vapors of Morphine and released A New Low, but the first hints at what was to come were here on this album from 2010 that combines studio tracks with live cuts.
“Hurricane” begins the album with a dark blues cut that sounds like it’s from a gothic film that takes place in a seedy Mississippi town in the middle of August. Colley’s saxophone is pushed through multiple effects pedals along the track, creating a mind-warping effect. “Different” continues this psychedelic swirl amid Deupree’s jazz drums and Lyons vocals about how all of us, despite our differences, are walking the same path in this reality.
“Pulled Over the Car” is a wicked groove tune from Morphine’s catalogue about a time Mark Sandman fell asleep at the wheel. The slinky sounds of “Let’s Take a Trip Together” are great example of low rock – trippy vocals, reverb saxophone, sexy drums, warped bass. “Thursday” is another fine example with its heavy baritone sax and darkly comic lyrics (again, from the late Mark Sandman) about an extra-marital affair that goes wrong after going so right for so long. “All Wrong” has all the punch of the original Morphine track, with all three men putting down serious chops on their respective instruments.
I love that they included the instrumental “Kitchen Closes at Midnight” on the album. It’s a neat psychedelic jam played with toys as well as the band’s respective instruments. The blues / bluegrass track, “Know,” written by Lyons, is the type of song that makes you stop in your tracks when you hear it. The dark saxophone tones, the vaguely country guitar, and the yearning-for-love vocals make you want to track the band down as soon as possible. The album ends with another live cut and another instrumental – “Palestrina.”
It’s a cool record. One that will impress you and anyone else who hears it.
Keep your mind open.
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Recorded across the span of three shows (July 15 – 17, 2015) at San Francisco’s Chapel, Thee Oh Sees’Live in San Francisco captures the band in full sweaty, raw power that threatens to blast you to smithereens.
Starting with the hard-charging “I Come from the Mountain,” the band (John Dwyer – guitar, vocals, synth, Tim Hellman – bass, Ryan Moutinho – drums, and Dan Rincon – drums) takes off like a rocket and barely gives you time to catch your breath between tracks. The “Whoa-oh!” chants of “The Dream” combined with Dwyer’s gasoline fire guitar work instantly invoke moshing (or at least the desire to do so) wherever you hear it. “Time Tunnel” sounds like that gasoline fire has spread across the rest of the stage and Hellman’s bass is dumping wood on the blaze. The song stops on a rough dime for a jarring effect.
The psychedelic surf swing of “Tidal Wave” is is a great example of the dual drumming of Moutinho and Rincon as they play different parts in different time signatures that match up at the best times to induce organized chaos. “Web” ramps up the reverb to send you into a calmer state, as does “Man in a Suitcase” (which is not a cover of the Police song, although I’m sure that would be outstanding) before that song’s wild guitar solos and heavy cymbal bashing smack you back into the present.
The happy, swelling grooves of “Toe Cutter Thumb Buster” practically make your speakers pogo. You’re almost exhausted by the time they get to the calm opening guitar chords of “Withered Hand,” but the song soon erupts like Old Faithful and dares you to keep up with it. “Sticky Hulks” gives you a little break with psychedelic fuzz to lull you into a warm place between mosh outbreaks.
The last two tracks, “Gelatinous Cube” and “Contraption” sound like riots. “Gelatinous Cube” has more precision drumming from Moutinho and Rincon while Dwyer’s guitar roars and soars all over the place and Hellman’s steady bass groove is like a gravitational pull keeping the rest of the band from blasting through the ceiling. “Contraption” brings in garage punk shredding and pounding and psychedelic freak-outs to powerwash off whatever’s left of your face by this point.
The vinyl edition of Live in San Francisco came with a DVD of the performances. This is widely available on YouTube as well. This recording is as close as you can come to being in the crowd at an Oh Sees show because it captures the incredible playing and the manic energy of one of their gigs so well. You owe it to yourself to get to one of their shows, but this album will hold you over in the meantime.
I’ll admit I arrived late to the IDLES party, but theirs is a party you want to attend. Their newest record, Joy As an Act of Resistance, has possibly the best name of any album released in 2018 and is certainly one of the most furious, powerful records of last year. It mixes anger with the current political landscape (on both sides of the pond) with calls to embrace one’s inner power and to express compassion and love as the ultimate pushback against hate culture.
The opening track, “Colossus,” is aptly named because it grows into a monstrous behemoth that explores lead singer Joe Talbot‘s turbulent youth and his efforts to change from living a weekend that lasted two decades. Watch out for the breakdown in this one. It’s downright dangerous. “Never Fight a Man with a Perm” is a tale from Talbot’s past in which he brawls with a man he severely underestimates.
“I’m Scum” has Talbot singing about how he can’t / doesn’t / won’t fit in with popular anger culture. “This snowflake’s an avalanche,” he warns as a heavy bass line thuds behind him. “Danny Nedelko” is a salute to one of Talbot’s best friends (and the lead singer of Heavy Lungs to boot) and immigrants everywhere amid Brexit fears in IDLES’ homeland. “Fear leads to panic, panic leads to pain, pain leads to anger, anger leads to hate,” Talbot sings. That’s some truth right there.
“Love Song” brings along some heavy Public Image Ltd. vibes with its squealing guitars and Talbot’s wild John Lydon-like vocals about the banality of modern love (“Look at the car I bought! It says, ‘I love you.'”). “June” just touches on psychedelia and “Samaritans” chugs along with a relentless beat that gets your blood pumping as Talbot sings about toxic masculinity.
“Television” tears apart beauty standards set upon us by media. “If someone talked to you, the way you do to you, I’d put their teeth through,” Talbot sings, “Love yourself.” “Great” pounds away at you with a fury that almost knocks you over, and “Gram Rock” brings in snarky punk attitude with the first line, “I’m sorry your grandad’s dead.”
“Cry to Me” has a 1960’s swagger to it that mixes in Joy Division menace. The album ends with “Rottweiler” – a fast garage rocker that sends the album out like the final bell of a boxing match.
It’s an angry yet joyful record. Joy, compassion, and love are the new counterculture, and this album is a soundtrack for the mixed emotions everyone has as they realize this. This would’ve been in my top 20 of 2018 had I not found it so late.
Originally released in 2003, Clutch‘s Slow Hole to China was a collection of obscure singles, unreleased material, and cover tunes. They re-released it in 2009 as Slow Hole to China: Rare and Re-released and included three more previously unreleased tracks.
One of those tracks is the first one on this album – “King of Arizona.” It’s a solid blues rocker with harmonica by guest Eric Oblander and vocalist Neil Fallon making allusions to either an Arizona gold mine, a cemetery in Arizona, James Reavis (a con man who was nearly given ownership of most of Arizona and a good chunk of New Mexico), or, quite likely, all three.
The title track has some of Dan Maines’ heaviest bass lines. “Nickel Dime” almost has a fiery gospel feel to it. “Sea of Destruction” hits as hard, if not harder, than a lot of current metal tracks thanks to Jean-Paul Gaster‘s furious drumming and Tim Sult’s fuzzed-to-the-max guitar. Blues swagger comes in heavy on “Oregon,” “Easy Breeze,” “Hale Bopp Blues” (which is sung from the perspective of dinosaurs fearing the arrival of the Hale Bopp comet and the end of their lives on Earth), and “Four Lords.”
“Rising Son” scorches and has one of my favorite lyrics on the album – “Gravity is such a drag, and we will not obey.” I can’t help but wonder if “Guild of Muted Assassins” was inspired by one of Fallon’s old Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, because that title needs to be the name of a D&D game module. “Willie Nelson” is about Fallon’s home being raided by jackbooted figures searching for drugs, secrets, or both. It might be the former when you consider the chorus is, “I don’t know if I’m coming or going, if it’s them or me. But the one thing’s for certain, Willie Nelson only smokes killer weed.”
“Equinox” is an instrumental that has wild Santana-like percussion. “Hoodoo Operator” is a floor-stomper with Maines’ bass taking on angry bee-like quality. “Day of the Jackalope” has Fallon’s vocals distorted as if through a fault megaphone, making him sound like a madman yelling on a street corner. “Ship of Gold (West Virginia)” is an alternate version of the song of the same name that would end up on Clutch’s Elephant Riders album. It’s a bit darker and heavier than that one, and has more extended jams as well.
This is a solid collection and can stand alone as its own album instead of a collection of singles and miscellaneous tracks. It’s worth seeking out if you’re a fan of Clutch, or even if you’re not.
Keep your mind open.
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It seems that only the legendary Herb Alpert could combine spaghetti western horns with late 1970’s synths and make it work. He did exactly that on his 1979 album Rise – his first without the Tijuana Brass backing him.
The opening track, “1980,” was originally written for NBC Sports’ coverage of the 1980 Olympics and sounds like a vision of what the next decade was going to sound like for all of us – full of futuristic gadgets and obsession over the coming new millennium clashing with old school thinking and ideals (pretty much the 1980’s in a nutshell). The title track is one of the funkiest things ever put on a record, so much so that it was heavily sampled by Biggie Smalls on “Hypnotize” (Abe Laboriel’s bass riffs alone could power two dozen hip hop records). Mike Lang’s piano work mixes well with Alpert’s expert trumpet work, and Alpert knows when to put down his horn and let his band jam.
“Behind the Rain” sounds like unused music from a Roger Moore-era Bond movie with its thrilling string and horn arrangements, machine gun-like drums, and car chase guitar. “Rotation” has this cool, quirky beat to it that mixes simple drum chops with electro-beats that are peppy yet subtle (and Alpert’s trumpet, of course, roots the entire track).
“Street Life” is sassy and brassy, with Alpert’s trumpet taking center stage throughout it while some funky slap bass struts alongside him. Speaking of slap bass, it’s even funkier on “Love Is,” a song that I’m sure was remixed for discos across the country at the time. Louis Johnson practically puts on a clinic on how to lay down a snappy bass groove. Alpert, again, smartly lets his instrument be the backup on the track.
“Angelina” brings in the Central American flair found on so many of Alpert’s records and even some Caribbean beats to boot. That south of the border sexiness continues on “Aranjuez (Mon Amour),” which also throws in disco beats and bass for good measure.
One can’t write about Rise without mentioning Herb Alpert’s nephew, Randy “Badazz” Alpert, who co-produced the record and brought in a lot of the disco / nightclub / funky touches. He helped bring his uncle’s work to even more people by getting “Rise” and other cuts into the hands of club DJ’s. It’s a classic record and worth a listen.
Keep your mind open.
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Out-of-State Plates is a double-album of B-sides, live cuts, and unreleased material from power pop masters Fountains of Wayne is a treasure trove of catchy hooks and witty lyrics.
Opener “Maureen” is the type of song FOW do so well – a big rocker about a lovely woman and unrequited love. “California Sex Lawyer” is a great example of Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger’s song craft. It’s a funny song skewering rich douche bags, many of whom probably love the song and don’t realize it’s a kick in their crotch. “Janice’s Party” is Collingwood’s salute to his friend’s annual shindig. “Karpet King” is a bonus track from 1997 that was, according to Schlesinger’s liner notes, “a live staple during our first few tours when we only had one album’s worth of material to choose from.” “I Know You Well” is a song Collingwood wrote for his brother’s wedding. “You’re Just Never Satisfied” is full of stadium rock riffs as Schlesinger throws up his hands yet again over trying and failing to please his girl.
Other standouts on the first disc are the 1999 bonus track “I’ll Do the Driving” (a song that angered Collingwood’s wife, according to his notes), the lovely “Places” (a salute to his wife, Barbara – the inspiration for their single “Barbara H.,” which was the A-side of this track), and their 1997 live cover of ELO’s “Can’t Get It Out of My Head.”
Disc two starts with the previously unreleased “The Girl I Can’t Forget,” a great tune about missing a great girl Schlesinger met when he was blitzed drunk and now can’t remember well. A low-key cover of Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time” follows it. “Elevator Up” is a sharp rocker about drug addicts. “Comedienne” (a 1997 bonus track) is a funny story about a comic who isn’t sure if she’s failing or succeeding.
Other highlights from this disc are the 1997 live version of “She’s Got a Problem,” a cover of Jackson Browne’s “These Days” done in one take, a triple shot of winter holiday songs (“I Want an Alien for Christmas,” “The Man in the Santa Suit,” and “Chanukah Under the Stars”), and a lovely tribute to Collingwood’s grandfather called “Imperium.”
This is a great collection of not only FOW songs, but also power pop tracks that any fan of the genre would love.
According to the Black Keys’ website, the title of their 2014 album Turn Blue could refer to “A. Suffocation. B. Sadness. C. Numbness from extreme cold. D. A Cleveland late night TV host from the 1960s named Ghoulardi. E. All of the above.”
As I listen to the album now during the 2019 Polar Vortex hitting the Midwest USA, I’m inclined to go with the third definition, but the psychedelic artwork of the album cover and the general southern California psychedelic sound of the record makes me want to lean toward the fourth one.
Produced by none other than Danger Mouse, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney recorded the album during the summer of 2013 at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California. The bright sunshine, warm weather, and California vibe infuse the entire record. The opener, “Weight of Love,” has Auerbach working his guitar like Carlos Santana and Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton adding bright keyboards behind Carney’s as-always rock solid drumming.
Speaking of rock solid drumming, how about Carney’s work on the appropriately titled “In Time?” Auerbach’s vocals go into a higher register to counter the thumping bass groove. The title track has Auerbach singing about the blues almost overwhelming him every night and warning us, “I really do hope you know there could be Hell below.” as we wander with him on and off paths of sin and vice.
“Fever” was the first single off Turn Blue, which is no surprise with its happy programmed beats ready for remixing, almost post-punk guitar chords, and catchy chorus. “You’ve been down this road before,” Auerbach preaches on “Year in Review” before ripping into a soaring solo that sounds like he wrote while hang gliding off a mountain in Utah.
The band’s love of Pink Floyd is evident on “Bullet in the Brain” from the opening guitar chords through the psychedelic, sludgy beats mixing with crystal clear electric keys. They turn up the fuzz on “It’s Up to You Now,” with Auerbach’s solo reaching meditative status. The soulful, sad love song “Waiting on Words” slows things down a bit, but it keeps some of the psychedelic touches with reverb and muted drums that build to head-bobbing beats. The bass lick on “10 Lovers” is positively groovy and almost steals the tune.
“In Our Prime” is a bluesy lament to lost youth that blends snappy beats from Carney with music box-like keyboards from Burton. The album ends with “Gotta Get Away,” a garage rock track with pop flair and ELO-like grooves.
I’ll admit that it took me a while to warm up to this record. I wasn’t sure what to make of it when I first heard it, but I knew I should give it another chance. The second listen revealed some things I hadn’t heard before, and by the third I knew it was a slick record indeed. I can’t help but think that the psychedelic touches on Turn Blue continued with Auerbach’s psychedelic side project The Arcs, and now I’m intrigued as to where the Black Keys will go next.
It’s a bit shocking to realize Art Brut‘s Bang Bang Rock & Roll came out 13 years ago this year, because it sounds like it was recorded yesterday. The wild post-punk / no wave record is bound to be a classic.
“Formed a Band” has Art Brut singing its praises and encouraging the listener to “stop buying your albums from the supermarket. They only sell records that have charted, and Art Brut, we’ve only just started.” Chugging guitars roar almost nonstop throughout it. The funny “My Little Brother” is a great song about worrying your siblings are turning into hipsters with bad taste in music (“…he made me a tape of tootles and B-sides. And every song, every single song on that tape said exactly the same thing. Why don’t our parents worry about us?”).
“Emily Kane” is one of Art Brut’s greatest hits as lead singer Eddie Argos sings an ode to the girlfriend he had when he was fifteen and still misses. “Rusted Guns of Milan” is a funny story about Argos not being able to have sex with a beautiful woman due to him having drank too much (although he claims otherwise), it being too dark, and his mind being elsewhere – perhaps thinking about Emily Kane.
“Modern art makes me want to rock out,” Argos sings on “Modern Art” – a crunchy, squeaky, loud tune about artwork and its effect on him. “Good Weekend” has Argos bragging about a new girl he’s met…or has he? One can’t help but wonder if he’s made up the whole story in an attempt to impress friends or give an excuse for preferring to be alone. It’s a fun garage rock track with a beat you can’t ignore.
“I can’t stand the sound of the Velvet Underground,” Argos sings on the title track (even though the song does devolve into a VU type of riffing by the end). He just wants songs that don’t retread old cliches (“No more songs about sex and drugs and rock and roll. It’s boring.”), even though he and the rest of the band embrace those cliches throughout the whole album. “Fight!” has Argos drunk and ready to take on a bigger, drunker guy outside the pub while his bandmates cheer him on. It’s a punk track in the middle of a no wave album. It’s great.
“Moving to L.A.” has Argos considering a move far away from dreary English weather and “drinking Hennessy with Morrissey on a beach.” It’s a fun send-up of California pretentiousness and rock. “Popular culture no longer applies to me,” Argos sings on “Bad Weekend.” Boy, I can relate to that. Ian Catskilkin‘s guitars hit hard on it, driving the tune to almost a racing speed. Those guitars flow in and out of distortion on “Stand Down” – a track about admitting when you’re wrong. “18,000 Lira” might be a song about touring in Italy. “These Animal Meanwe@r” is a heavy song about bullying that channels Weezer and Pixies. “Really Bad Weekend” is a tale of Argos nearing cheating on his girlfriend, but being rescued by he and / or his near-lover falling asleep instead. “Maternity Ward” ends the album with Argos telling kids in a maternity ward that “everything’s gonna be all right.” I hope he still means that thirteen years later.
It’s a fun, snarky, witty record that rocks harder than you might expect. It heralded good things for the band, who just released a new record last year. They’re also touring again, which is good news for all of us.
Keep your mind open.
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I was 14 when Chicago punk legends Naked Raygun released their classic album All Rise. It would be another two years before I was able to drive a beat-up station wagon that formerly belonged to my Uncle Tony to a punk rock club about 45 minutes from my house and there become aware of Naked Raygun and their cult status.
It’s easy to figure out how they rose so fast in the mid-1980’s punk scene. All Rise‘s opener, “Home of the Brave,” is an instant anthem for the Reagan era. Pierre Kezdy‘s bass on “Dog at Large” is heavy enough for a metal band. “Knock Me Down” begins with a subtle start, but soon roars to life with frantic drums by Eric Spicer and Jeff Pezzati‘s snotty lyrics about a girl he can’t shake after she’s dumped him for good. One can’t help but wonder if “Mr. Gridlock” refers to President Regan, Chicago mayor Harold Washington, or someone else. The song has a deadly swagger to it, as if it’s looking for a fight. John Haggerty‘s guitar sounds like a tuned chainsaw on it. “The Strip” moves back and forth between chugging punks riffs and Husker Du-like jams as Naked Raygun pay homage to a seedy hotel-bar. “I Remember” has some of Spicer’s wildest drumming on the album.
Pezzati’s vocals on “Those Who Move” (about speaking truth to power and freedom of information, among other things) are urgent and still relevant in 2018. Kezdy’s bass on “The Envelope” certainly pushes the envelope of the studio amps because it nearly knocks you to the floor right out of the gate. Not to be outdone, Haggerty shreds on “Backlash Jack.” As soon as “Peacemaker” starts, you get the feeling that it’s not going to be all that peaceful. It isn’t. It’s heavy, squealing, and even a bit terrifying. The album ends with “New Dreams,” a punk anthem that sounds as fresh, raw, and vital today as it did in 1985.
All Rise is classic working class punk rock by four lads who deserve to be in the same conversations that bring up Fugazi, Bad Religion, DRI, the Dead Kennedys, and other legendary punk groups.
