Christian Bland and the Revelatorsis one of multiple side projects from the Black Angels‘ lead guitarist. They love early Pink Floyd records, and that’s all right with me. I saw them at Levitation Austina couple years ago and they put on a good afternoon set. I’ve met Mr. Bland at three different Black Angels shows (Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis), and he was a cool cat and happy to sign my gig poster each time.
Keep your mind open.
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I first heard The Duke Spirit (LielaMoss – vocals, keys, percussion, Toby Butler – bass, Luke Ford – guitars, Daniel Higgins – guitars, organ, Olly Betts – drums) on BBC 6 Music (the greatest radio station in the world) somewhere around 2010 when they played the title track from the Duke Spirit’s 2005 debut album Cuts Across the Land. I nearly wept and thought, “Where has this band been my whole life?”
I found their 2008 release, Neptune, in a bargain CD bin at a Bloomington, Indiana wrecka stow. It opens with a brief hymn that repeats the lines “I do believe in something you know.” You can take that a couple different ways: Either Moss is telling us she has faith in something we know as truth; or she’s defiantly telling someone, perhaps us, that she has faith despite what we might believe.
The first full track, “Send a Little Love Token,” sums up everything I love about the band: Powerful vocals that evoke Patti Smith, hammering piano, big drums, and shoegaze guitar. “The Step and the Whale” is about Moss realizing too late that she’s sabotaged a relationship. It’s a sharp song for her voice, Butler’s bass sounds like something from an old Cure record, and the rest of the band puts down stuff the Jesus and Mary Chain would envy.
“Dog Roses” might be Moss remembering why she sabotaged the relationship and remembering that it was a good idea after all: “I hope you stay in charge of your mouth…When nothing’s fluid you drink yourself through it. Outside you chalk-draw yourself.” “Into the Fold,” a good rocker, is about rebuilding a relationship (“This heart could heal, if you had courage just to say what you feel.”).
“This Ship Was Built to Last” is a combination sea shanty and shoegaze track. Trust me, it works. The combination of the distorted, echoing guitar (especially after the epic bridge), Moss’ chanting vocals, and coxswain drumming is excellent.
Someone must’ve pissed off Moss when she wrote “Wooden Heart,” because it’s a searing diatribe against a former lover, but delivered with a torch song blues feel. “I would understand your heart if I could feel it,” she sings as guitars reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine riffs snake around her.
She’s not angry in “You Really Wake Up the Love in Me.” Quite the opposite, actually. “You taste so good today you’d get love from anyone,” she sings as Betts puts down some of his best licks on the record and the guitars go into full psychedelic madness by the end. “My Sunken Treasure” is borderline power pop. “Lassoo,” with its nice horn section, is the excellent power rock the Duke Spirit does so well, combining fierce vocals with raw rock instrumentation. It continues with “Neptune’s Call,” in which Moss is feeling frisky again (“I tasted the salt on you. Now I have a tongue tattoo.”). The closer, “Sovereign,” is almost a lullaby.
The Duke Spirit have a new album, Kin, due out later this year. I look forward to it. The first three released tracks are a nice blend of their styles: shoegaze, soul, rock. Neptune picks up where Cuts Across the Land left off, and the band is still moving forward.
Keep your mind open.
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In the liner notes for Kaiser Chiefs’ (Ricky Wilson – vocals, Andrew White – guitar, Nick Baines – keyboards, Simon Rix – bass, Vijay Mistry – drums) Education, Education, Education & War, each track is listed with a year, staring with 1921 and ending with 2014 (when the album was released).
The band comes out swinging with “The Factory Gates” (Year – 1921) – a song about the plight of British factory workers trapped in their clock-in, clock-out lives. “They tell you day after day to walk through the factory gates. What you make on the factory floor, you take straight to the company store…’Til they can’t break your will anymore. You are contractually tied to death’s door,” Wilson sings with the gusto of a man ready to smash his cubicle and walk away from his job.
“Coming Home” (Year – 1951) is a fine example of Kaiser Chiefs’ power ballads, with big instrumentation and clever lyrics about a relationship that might be toxic to both people involved but might also be the best thing they’ve had. “Misery Company” (Year – 1939) is about a young officer wanting to stay off the front lines and going mad at the thought of spilling human blood (as noted by the chorus of hysterical laughter). White’s guitar sizzles on this track.
Mistry’s drums hit hard on “Ruffians on Parade” (Year – 1947). It’s easy to hear this as a song about the high the UK was on after World War II ended, but it’s actually a song about how a lot of us have turned into jerks in a world affected by terrorism. We’ve given up privacy and some of our freedom for the illusion of safety and consumerism (“At the last stand of the day, we lost more than we saved. In the dark of the arcades, we spend more than we made.”). “Meanwhile Up in Heaven” (Year – 1970) challenges us to free ourselves from this trap (“And your mind is the key. It is the key that sets you free.”). It’s another big ballad that casually strolls into power pop, although Rix’s bass is particularly fat on it.
“One More Last Song” (Year – 1991) is about post-1980’s greed, and it has a nice, nearly psychedelic keyboard breakdown in it by Baines at one point before the guitar, bass, and drums roll back in to make it a nice rocker. “My Life” (Year – 2000) is a sharp tune about someone moving on after the end of a relationship that had run its course (much like the 1990’s had and everyone looked forward to a new millennium and new opportunities). The band cooks on it and Wilson’s lyrics are Zen-like in their portrayal of someone waking up from their illusions (“I walk along the sand with my shoes in my hand to the daylight, and I realize the fishermen are heading out to ocean. The café owner turns on the urn, flips the sign round to open, and it goes on.”).
“Bows & Arrows” (Year – 1962) could be about a couple who rely on each other to get through everyday life or about two buddies in Viet Nam who rely on each other to stay alive – or both. It has one of the standards of any Kaiser Chiefs record – the chant-along chorus (“We the people created equal, and if that’s true then we’re not the only ones.”).
“Cannons” (Year – 2014) is a damning tirade against Big Government, Big Brother, The Man, the 1%, or whatever you want to call them. Kaiser Chiefs again remind us that we have compromised much for the feeling of security (“They’re making all the difficult decisions, politicians and children first, followed by their personal physicians who say you will be happy if you expect the worst.”). The song ends with a poem, “The Occupation,” read by actor bill Nighy, and speaks of people letting things fall apart around them while the rich get richer.
“Roses” (Year – 1980) is a low key (at least in the beginning) ending to the record, as Wilson sings about the failure of his generation, most of whom didn’t live up to their claims they were going to change the world or not fall into the rat race (“The bottles in the drug store were all just piss and ink. The flags you wore are rags under the sink.”). It’s not all gloom and doom, however. The song turns into a lovely song about hope (“It’s dark where the roses grow.”) with lush keyboards by the time it’s finished.
Education, Education, Education & War is one of the angriest albums I’ve heard in a while, but also one of the cleverest. Kaiser Chiefs have always been able to hide scathing lyrics in near-pop songs, and this album has some of their best deceptive work.
Keep your mind open.
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Les Claypool of Primus and Sean Lennon of The Ghost of a Sabre Tooth Tiger have teamed up to create a new psychedelic-prog rock project called The Claypool Lennon Delirium.
TGOASTT opened for Primus on their last tour, and Claypool and Lennon would often jam on tour before, during, and after shows. Claypool had hoped to put together another Oysterhead album after Primus’ last tour, but “the stars wouldn’t align” (according to the CLD’s website) and Lennon told him he didn’t have any immediate plans.
The initial tracks of the CLD’s album, Monolith of Phobos, are a trippy mix of Primus, TGOASTT, Beatles, Zappa, Beefheart, Pet Sounds Beach Boys, and acid jazz. This should be an excellent record (due out in June), and their summer tour should be a must-see.
Keep your mind open.
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It is fitting, crucial in fact, that the name of the newest Night Beats record isn’t Who Sold My Generation? It’s Who Sold My Generation. No question mark. Night Beats (Robert Levon Breen – bass and backing vocals, Danny Lee Blackwell – guitar, vocals, piano, percussion, bass, James Traeger – drums) aren’t asking who sold their generation to career politicians, multinational banks, and corporations. They already know. It was sold by “spitting news anchors,” people selling toxic junk as food and drink, those in power who let that power corrupt them, and, mostly, damningly, their generation for allowing it to happen.
“Celebration #1” is a spoken word manifesto over a freak-out beat, blues bass walk, and dark alley guitar. “When they come into your down, the sons of a sold generation, they’ll grab what isn’t nailed down,” Blackwell sings. Millennials don’t expect things to be handed to them, but they are tired of their future being bartered, sold, and stolen. They are here to take it back.
“Power Child” makes sure you know this is a Night Beats record because it is full of their usual great grooves, reverb, slick drumming, and sound that would be just as fresh if they’d originally opened for MC5. Blackwell’s shredding solo on it closes out the song, leaving you wanting more. Don’t worry, because “Right / Wrong” is just as good. I always like the vocal effects Blackwell uses. It’s hard to discern sometimes where his normal singing voice ends and where distortion and reverb begins, and I think that’s great.
“No Cops” is the first single from the record, and it’s a burner with Been’s bad ass bass, Traeger’s floor-stomping drums, and Blackwell’s guitar that seems to be everywhere at once as he sings about a couple days in the city gone horribly wrong. It’s nice to hear the band branching out into border rock territory with the Spanish lyrics in “Porque Manana,” which could be translated as “Why Tomorrow?” Since there’s no question mark here either, I’m guessing it’s actually “Because Tomorrow.” Act now, because tomorrow isn’t guaranteed to any of us.
Traeger plays drums and a maraca at the same time on “Sunday Mourning,” creating one of the best beats on the record, and Been’s bass line on it holds the song together so well that I imagine he’s a bricklayer when he’s not on tour. Been is the newest member of Night Beats, and his addition has taken the band to another level. His bass work is a hot mix of boogie blues, psychedelia, and funk. Not to be outdone, Blackwell’s guitar on “Sunday Mourning” might make your jaw fall off your head.
“Shangri Lah” and “Bad Love” reveal the band’s love of surf music. “Burn to Breathe” is a slow burn of excellent psychedelia that calls back to the 1960’s better than most modern psychedelic bands can even attempt.
The Monkees’ “Last Train to Clarksville” is about a young man about to be sent to Vietnam. Night Beats rock far harder than the Monkees, of course (although “Clarksville” is a great tune), but I can’t help wondering if “Last Train to Jordan” might be the band’s tribute to members of their generation who served in the Middle East.
“Ain’t gonna wait for tomorrow, ain’t gonna wait for tonight,” Blackwell sings on “Turn the Lights.” Again, complacency is the enemy of us all. The song has a great harmonica solo. So, as a sloppy player of the Mississippi saxophone myself, I love it.
The album closes with “Egypt Berry” – perhaps the most raucous rocker on the record. Pay attention, upcoming bands: If you’re wondering how to end your album, you might want to take a lesson from Night Beats. End with a song that combines Arabian-flavored guitar, Elvis Presley rhythm section beats, Johnny Cash bass, surf cymbals, and a false ending that gives you one last hit before you go.
This is already in my top records of 2016 so far and will most likely be in the top ten for the entire year. Night Beats get better with each record, so buy this and their whole catalogue. Do not hesitate. Hesitation helped sell a generation to one percent of the populace. Night Beats have warned us to not let it happen again.
Keep your mind open.
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The Kills‘ fifth full-length album, Ash & Ice, is due for release on June 03, 2016. The first single, “Doing It to Death,” is already available for download and purchase and puts electro beats with their usual smoky, crunchy guitar riffs and sultry vocals.
They’ll start a tour on April 07, 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee and play shows all the way through mid-August. Catch them if you can.
Many thanks to Sir George Martin, who died on March 8th, 2016, for everything he helped give the world of music. Commonly known as “the fifth Beatle,” Sir Martin was responsible for producing many of their greatest hits, starting with “Love Me Do” and well into the 1970’s. He also produced music for James Bond films and the themes to Live and Let Die and Goldfinger.
The BBC documentary The Compleat Beatles is an excellent look back on not only the Beatles, but Sir Martin’s contributions to music that continues to inspire to this day.
Keep your mind open.
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La Basura Del Diablo(Whitey Mack – vocals, Chris Howler – bass, G.W. Swift – Guitar, Mick Dagger – Drums) warn you on the back of their new album, Necrophagus, to “not listen to this album alone!” This is because Necrophagus is not for the timid. It is a wickedly good slice of horror rock, so don’t say you
“Welcome to Hell” certainly is a great title to open a record, as is Howler’s thick bass riff on it. “Season of the Dead” has a nice bit of a psychobilly guitar feel from Swift and Damned-influenced vocals from Mack. “Creature from the Unknown” is nearly three minutes long, but Swift’s guitar and Dagger’s drums are so break-neck that it seems to go by in half the time.
“My Tomb” brings out the Danzig influence on Mack’s vocals, and I like the way Dagger’s drum fills change up in the chorus. “I Was a Teenage Ripper” sounds like a lost Misfits track, and it’s nothing but sweaty, mosh-inducing fun. Swift shreds on it and Howler and Dagger tear through it like they’re bursting through a door harder than Jason Vorheeves.
“Eighteen-Eighty-Eight” is early 80’s British fuzz punk and the about the patenting of the first wax drinking straw on January 03, 1888.
Just kidding, it’s about Jack the Ripper.
“Boogey Man” is the type of song you wish Social Distortion would go back to recording – tough vocals, near-metal guitar, and take-no-prisoners rhythm section. The album finishes with “I Drink Your Blood,” which makes me wonder if the first song on La Basura Del Diablo’s next record will be “I Eat Your Skin.”
You need to look up these guys if you’re a fan of horror rock and movies. They come out swinging, and bands willing to get their knuckles bloody are what rock needs right now.
Keep your mind open.
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Screaming Females(Marissa Paternoster – guitars and vocals, Jarrett Dougherty – drums, “King” Michael Abbate – bass) are, in case you don’t know, one of the best rock power trios of our time. Their album Ugly was one of my favorite discoveries of 2012 and their newest, Rose Mountain, is another great piece of work and the most honest album about relationships I’ve heard in a long while.
Like Ugly, Rose Mountain starts with a good rocker. “Empty Head” gets right to the chugging bass, sharp percussion, and power riffs that Paternoster is making better than anyone right now. It’s about betrayal and annoyance in a relationship (“I’ll take your silence as a sign. You’re a big shot, but who needs who?”) dealt with via guitar.
“Ripe” is about a relationship full of so much passion that it might fly off the rails, much like Paternoster’s guitar riffs on it. When she sings, “I said peel the skin raw,” her shredding practically does it for you. “Wishing Well” almost has a surf vibe to the guitar work as Paternoster sings about regret for screwing up a relationship. “The dial tone is your true love” is a brutal, yet beautiful lyric (as is Paternoster’s solo).
“Burning Car” moves about as fast as such. “Broken Neck” is a song about madness and life in an asylum (although I wouldn’t be surprised if the asylum is a metaphor for a dead end relationship). Abbate’s bass line stalks around the song like a shuffling thorazine addict. The title track is a haunting one about death and Paternoster’s preferred burial site. Her guitar work on it goes from heavy as the Grim Reaper’s blade to weirdly catchy.
“Hopeless” is the saddest song on the record. “Don’t count on me again,” Paternoster sings, “I obsess on our encounters. I want us to be friends. I’m not hopeless, helpless, or begging you to say. It’s just turning out that way.” Who hasn’t been there at some point?
“Triumph” (which is about getting back up after a bad relationship knocks you down – “I want to feel all of the things I’ve been refused and celebrate my first victory, destroy my history with you.”) follows it, and the guitar work on it matches the title. All three of the Females play for the back of the room. Paternoster lays down some of her fiercest riffs on it. She’s one of the best guitar players of this modern age. Watch YouTube videos of the Screaming Females at small gigs and you’ll see men almost twice her size cower back as she plays with the ferocity of that bear from The Revenant.
“It’s Not Fair” seems to be about Paternoster missing her lover while she’s out on tour and “Criminal Image” closes the album with Thin Lizzy-like rock as Paternoster sings about a siren she’s obsessed with and for whom she’ll do anything. A faint piano in the background adds a nice touch as Doughtery’s drums grow in power with each moment. Abbate holds this hold song together with a good groove and Paternoster blazes through the end solo with stuff that would make Prince envious.
It’s another solid record from a solid trio. I need to see them live.
Just when you thought Jack White was going to do nothing but solo projects and produce obscure vinyl singles for his favorite bands the rest of his life, he got back together with his comrades in The Dead Weather (Alison Mosshart – vocals and keyboards, Dan Fertita – guitars, Jack Lawrence – bass, White on drums and vocals) and put together the group’s third record – Dodge and Burn.
The opener, “I Feel Love (Every Million Miles),” is a sharp, hot rocker with Fertita’s guitar licks being somewhere between psychedelia and metal. “Buzzkill(er)” doesn’t spare the echo effects, which doesn’t bother me at all. White and Mosshart have great voices for rock, and I love how both of their vocals are often distorted or drenched in reverb on Dead Weather records. This one is no exception.
“Let Me Through” has the fuzziest guitars on the record. They sound like they were played through amps bought from a failed punk band’s garage sale. “Three Dollar Hat” is sort of a rap song and sort of a Captain Beefheart song before it becomes a ball-busting banger that proves yet again what a bad ass Alison Mosshart is.
“Lose the Right” has that “Jack White feel” throughout it. It would be fit as well on a White Stripes, Raconteurs, or solo record as it does here. The keyboards on it give it extra punch. “Rough Detective” deserves to be on the soundtrack of your next favorite action movie. Lawrence’s bass on it is massive and White and Mosshart have a blast with the back and forth lyrics.
Mosshart’s vocal style on “Open Up” isn’t far off from Patti Smith’s (one of her main influences). “Be Still” goes by so fast (under three minutes) that it’s almost like an introduction to “Mile Markers.” The whole band is sharp on this track as Mosshart is at her sexy best, going from soothing seductive vocals to dominatrix-like commands. She continues it on “Cop and Go” with lyrics like “You’re caught like a cop in a cookie jar. Get what you want. Take it all.” The song dissolves into almost punk rock fervor with Fertita’s riffs fueling it.
“Too Bad” is so good that it demands multiple listens. White’s drumming is probably the best on the record here. Fertita’s guitar comes at you from all directions, Lawrence grooves like he doesn’t give a damn what everyone else is playing, and Mosshart moves into rock goddess mode with her voice.
“Impossible Winner” closes the record, and does so without distorting, echoing, or otherwise altering Mosshart’s excellent voice. It’s lovely and a great underscore to her talents.
The Dead Weather have no plans to tour, which is bad news for us, but at least we have this fine record. It’s better than no Dead Weather at all.
