New Music Review

Paul Westerberg
PW & The Ghost Gloves Cat Wing Joy Boys
Digital Download EP










Back in July of 2008, Paul Westerberg surprised and excited his longtime fans by coming out with download-only album (or song, depending on your perspective) called 49:00 of your life. In my opinion, it was excellent, although a bit off the beaten path. If nothing else, it gave lots of hope to us die-hards that there would be more new material coming. And for a minute, there was. He released a companion piece called "5:05" to supplement 49:00, and then sporadically released a couple songs here and there for the duration of the year, including three songs released right around Christmas. This was the first real burst of creativity we had seen out of Paul since he badly injured his fretting hand in late 2006. We were optimistic that there would be more stuff on the horizons; albums (digital download or otherwise), shows, tv appearances, whatever.

We got nothing. There has been no news on the Westerberg front in all of 2009. Until now. Finally.

When I got wind that Westerberg had released a download-only EP through Amazon at the low, low price of $3.89, I immediately purchased it. PW & the Ghost Glove Cat Wing Joy Boys is a six song EP that most fans would probably describe as something that sounds a lot like the stuff he's released under the moniker of Grandpaboy. It's pretty lo-fi, rough, raw, and as usual, it's rather good. All six songs on this release are worth listening to. The best song on it, "Drop them Gloves" is a classic Stones/Faces-style blues rocker, and Paul has always been able to do that better than most. The worst song on it is the piano-driven "Love on the Wing", and even when that starts to get boring, the lyrics are too clever to make you want to hit the skip button. The other four songs are somewhere in between; mostly a cross between the later Grandpaboy sounds of Dead Man Shake and some of the better stuff of of Folker. I'm really glad to be in possession of a new Westerberg release. It's about fuckin' time.

One could only hope that Paul starts working on a new album soon and then go on tour to support it. One could also hope that this album would be released through conventional methods. Furthermore, one could really hope that Paul hires a band to back him in the studio, or at the very least hire a real drummer, because playing the drums is something that Paul does not do well, and you can generally count on that being the downside of these DIY basement recordings he puts out. One could hope. If that's not in the cards, I'll take all the stuff like this I can get. Ultimately, however, this just leaves me wanting more and wondering what if...

New Music Review

The Avett Brothers
"Slight Figure of Speech" b/w "More of You
7" Single
American Recordings









This has been a huge week for music releases, and it's going to take me a few days to really absorb everything. I've been on the go quite a bit lately, so I'm fortunate that this week's stuff isn't all vinyl, or it would take me forever to get caught up. We've already covered the new Kris Kristofferson release, and the reason why I was able to get to that one first was because it's on CD, and I can listen to it at work or in the car. If Criminal had stocked the vinyl, there's no way I would have it finished. I downloaded the new download-only Paul Westerberg EP from Amazon, but I haven't fully absorbed it yet (I definitely love it, though). Hopefully I can have that sorted out by tomorrow.

The thing I really can't wait to do this week, however, is to put the new Avett Brothers 2-disc, 180 gram vinyl album I and Love and You on my turntable and give it a spin. I'm hell bent on doing this all in one sitting, and not one side at a time. Unfortunately for me, I haven't had that kind of time this week. Fortunately for me, when I purchased this double long player at Criminal on Tuesday, they also had a limited edition 7" for sale featuring "Slight Figure of Speech" from the record, and a non-album b-side called "More of You". I have been able to listen to this, and all it's doing is making me even antsier to listen to the LP.

I've heard two cuts from the LP on the radio over the last six weeks or so. One of them is the title track, and I can't recall the name of the other off the top of my head. They were both very nice, melodic tunes immaculately produced by Rick Rubin that prominently displayed their folksy musical heritage. That's all well and good, but I was terribly of afraid that the new release would perhaps turn its back on the other half of the Avetts roots, which is knee deep in punk rock. After listening to this 7", I fear this no more.

When they're at their best, the Avetts will make anyone turn his/her head. Their slower and softer numbers are filled with tight musicianship, extraordinarily catchy pop hooks, and structure that requires an impressive degree of musical literacy to compose. Their harder edged songs combine the best elements of No Depression-era Uncle Tupelo, and the first Violent Femmes album. These are all things that separate the Avetts from the AMERICAN'TA acts polluting the airwaves today (read: just about all of the limp-dick folk acts on Sub Pop).

"Slight Figure of Speech" sounds very much like the first songs I ever heard from this band that got my attention. It's upbeat, it's catchy and pleasing to the senses. At the same time, it's played hard and fast and aggressive, albeit in an acoustic guitar/upright bass kind of way. "More of You" is a slower number, and I defy you to listen to it three or four times and not have it stuck in your head for the rest of the day. If the reason why this song didn't make the final cut for I and Love and You is because it wasn't good enough, then let's just say I can't wait to hear the rest of it.

I'm at the point where I just cannot wait to hear this LP. The Avett Brothers seem to be a band on the verge of a major breakthrough, and Rick Rubin was undoubtedly the right producer to put them in such a position. I'd be failing if I didn't mention that we're at a point where we desperately need it. With stale folk-influenced bands from the Pacific Northwest like Fruit Bats, Blitzen Trapper, and especially Band of Horses increasing in popularity, the average consumers of American indie-rock have turned into mindless sheep. Sheep that apparently favor music that has no heart, no soul, no brains, and sure as shit doesn't have any balls.

If this single is any indicator, the Avett Brothers are still making music with balls. And not a moment too soon. This may be a sorely needed heart transplant for the dying musical genre that is Americana. If nothing else, it'll at least increase the amount of testosterone in the room and prove that you don't have to be a flailing little pussy to play folk music.

New Music Review

Kris Kristofferson

Closer to the Bone
New West Records

CD (Deluxe Edition)

It was only a couple weeks ago that I got wind of a new Kris Kristofferson album. As a matter of fact, I was completely oblivious to the fact the he put out an album called This Old Road in 2006. To be perfectly honest, I hadn't really given much thought to the man in quite some time. I thought of him as a legendary singer-songwriter who was essentially retired, but still acts in movies sometimes. That changed one afternoon when I was listening to WMLB on my ride home. I heard a song that for the first time in a while made me wonder: "this is great; what the fuck is it?" I was rather surprised to hear that it was new material from Mr. Kristofferson. Ever since that moment, I had been anxiously awaiting this release until yesterday afternoon, when I was finally able to pick it up.

And it didn't disappoint.

Closer to the Bone is, in many ways, a tremendous piece of work by an old master of his craft. Kris Kristofferson is one of the most prolific songwriters of all time, and he's only released new material sporadically for the last couple of decades. I don't know if this has been because he's lacked inspiration, if he felt a desire to self-edit, or he was just too busy making Blade movies. He hasn't made anything this good in quite a long time.

Ever since Rick Rubin struck gold with Johnny Cash in the 90's, it seems like every producer out there has been trying to do a stripped down record with an aging Country star. It's a classic example of throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall to see what sticks. Don Was isn't going to see anywhere near the record sales or critical acclaim that Rubin had with the man in black, but when this year is in the books, he may have been the man behind the board for the best album of 2009. He made one that sticks to the wall, and he played the bass on it, to boot.

Closer to the Bone opens with a titular track, and it's one of the best cuts on the disc. It features backing vocals by Stephen Bruton, longtime Kristofferson guitarist who passed away not long after recording finished, and multiple media outlets mistook it for an uncredited Bob Dylan. "Closer to the Bone" does a great job of setting the tone for the album that bears its name. It's raw, it's personal, it's musically minimalistic, and lyrically it's better than 99 per cent of recording artists could ever dream of being.

This record contains songs about love ("From Here to Forever", "The Wonder", "Starlight and Stone), songs about loss ("Hall of Angels", "Love Don't Live Here Anymore"), songs about friends ("Good Morning John", "Let the Walls Come Down") and a very well written song about Sinead O'Connor ("Sister Sinead") of all people. My favorite on this record is "Tell Me One More Time"; a bluesy number with a hint of gospel influence to it and the best lyrics on the whole album:

Girl I guess I've been forgiven

I've acquired a taste for living

Just when I was close to giving up the ghost

That pretty much sums the whole record up. In many ways, this is an album about growing old, written by a man who's growing old. The only downside to this record, if it has one at all, is that there is only so much you can do with a 73 year old man's voice. Maybe the music and the melodies are simple because they needed to be. Whether or not that was the case, it seems to work just fine on this record, at least for my tastes.

Kris Kristofferson proved on this record that he's still better than most as a songwriter. And he may not have a youthful set of vocal pipes anymore, but he can still sing well enough to get the job done; that's probably because, unlike most singer-songwriters, he actually has something significant to say. If he wants to call it quits and never put anything else out, I would understand and respect that. But Closer to the Bone is definitely a record that has left me wanting more, and moments like that are hard to come by these days. I think we need all of the Kristofferson we can get, and we need it in the form of new albums of original material, not Blade sequels.

P.S. - I would highly recommend the Deluxe Edition of this CD, if you're able to get your hands on it. It comes with a bonus disc of a live concert from Dublin that occurred in 2008. It has a great rendition of "Sunday Mornin' Comin Down".

New Stuff!

I went to Criminal on my lunch hour and picked up the new Avett Brothers LP, a 7-inch that coincided with the release of that LP, and the deluxe CD version of Kris Kristofferson's new one, which includes a bonus disc of a live recording from Dublin last year. I'll start posting about this stuff ASAP.

Records

Last weekend turned out to be rather disappointing. It rained the whole time, and the usually fun (annual) East Atlanta Strut was extraordinarily lame because of it. I couldn't really think of anything else to do except drink. I did manage to stagger into Reactionary Records a couple of times to pick up some vinyl, though. Here is what I wound up procuring:

Peter Stubb

Selected Cuts, Vol. 1

Family Night Records

LP

Peter Stubb has been around for years, but he's a relatively new discovery for me. I saw him play a set at the Fringe Binge at the Star Bar earlier this summer, and it was incredible. I see a very lengthy post exlusively about Mr. Stubb in the future. For now, suffice it to say that he possesses the savant-like genius of Wesley Willis, but with actual songs, and musical ability. He also possesses a self-destructive streak reminiscent of G.G. Allin; but his is authentic, not bullshit theatrics. Again, he is a real songwriter who can sing pretty well and has pretty good guitar chops. Check some of his stuff out at http://www.myspace.com/peterstubb. Better yet, pop into Reactionary Records and pick this LP up for yourself.

The Maytals
Do the Reggae 1966-1970
Trojan Records

LP

This is a fantastic compilation of early Toots and the Maytals that I just couldn't resist picking up. It sounds great from start to finish. In this purchase, I also learned that "54-46 is My Number" is not the same song as "54-46 was my number". I now need to find a 7" or LP that has the latter on it, because I prefer that song. Goddammit.

New York Dolls

New York Dolls

Mercury Records

LP

Not much needs to be said about this one. This is one of the best and most influential albums of all time. I've never owned this on vinyl before, and I'm kind of ashamed to say that. This particular copy of it came sealed with red colored vinyl. Now I can satisfy my Johnny Thunders fetish in style.

D.R.I.

4 of a Kind

Metal Blade Records

LP

This is another one that I've never owned on vinyl before. I got a hold of this cassette in '88 or '89, and I wore out all the lettering on it. This was my introduction to D.R.I., a band that I still dig very much to this day. This will always be my favorite D.R.I. release because of it, in spite of the fact that Dealing with It and Crossover are undeniably better. This one really takes me back.

Madness

Work Rest & Play

Stiff Recordings

7" EP

This one takes me back even further. When I think of the band Madness, I think of two things. First, I think of a trip to England that I made with my family when I was about 9. At the time, "House of Fun" was a really big hit in the U.K. and I heard it shitloads of times during that trip. I remember loving that song to death and thinking how much better it was than what was getting played on the radio on my side of the pond. The other thing I think of when I think of Madness is the two appearances they made on BBC's The Young Ones, which is pretty high up on my list of favorite tv shows of all time. If I understand it correctly, the reason why they made two appearances on the show (which consisted of just 13 episodes over two series) is that the BBC was considering giving them their own sitcom. I suspect it would have been something like the Monkees, but a lot better. You'll notice in that last clip that Suggsy was a lousy lip-syncher. I wonder if that was the deal breaker. At any rate, 5 bucks for a 7" containing "Night Boat to Cairo" was too good to pass up.



That's all for now. I haven't had much to write about in the last week or so. I may or may not go to the Butthole Surfers show at Masquerade on Saturday (I really don't know why I'm not completely enthused about it, actually), and there are a couple of smaller club shows that might be worth checking out. New releases from The Avett Brothers and Kris Kristofferson drop next Tuesday, so that may be the next time you hear from me. See ya.

A Quick Rant

The shitty folk bands on Sub Pop are starting to get highly irritating. 1690 AM is still my favorite radio station, but lately they're playing way too much of this shit. Fruit Bats suck. Anybody who doesn't agree with that statement should either a) kill himself/herself, or b) shut the fuck up about music, because he/she obviously don't know he/she is talking about.

Besides having to hear entirely too much of that shitty Sub Pop band, I've heard the song "Furr" by Blitzen Trapper what seems like every day for the last two weeks. These guys are actually not that bad of a band. They mostly have songs that are ok, and a couple that I would call pretty good. "Furr" is not one of them. The album version sounds like a really bad Elliot Smith song. Unfortunately, it's not possible to leave bad enough alone and there is a live version of it being played that makes my fucking skin crawl. It sounds to me, and I'm not kidding here, like Townes Van Zandt getting raped in a prison shower by Gram Parsons.

Sorry for the imagery, but I had to get that off my chest. If I hear this fucking song again on my drive home, I'm going to stab myself in the ears.

New Music Review

Manic Street Preachers
Journal for Plague Lovers
Columbia Records
MP3 Album download









When I got up this morning, I decided that come hell or high water, I was going to purchase some new music this afternoon, listen to it, and then write about it tonight. Being that it's Tuesday, I headed over to Criminal Records on my lunch hour to see what they had available. I looked at the list of today's releases, and the only thing that really piqued my interest was the latest release by The Dynamites. Alas, Criminal had yet to receive that particular shipment, so that was not meant to be. I perused their selection of newer vinyl and decided that Dinosaur Jr.'s latest effort wasn't new enough, and that Yo La Tengo's new one, although still pretty new at one week old, would probably bore the shit out of me. Although the prospect of giving them a shitty review was fairly enticing, the fact that it would have cost me roughly 20 bucks for an LP I would never listen to again was the dealbreaker. I left Criminal Records empty-handed this afternoon, and let me tell you that does not happen very often.

I got back to the office and decided that I was still going to listen to some new music today and write about it later this evening. I got on Amazon, and started looking at their list of MP3 albums that went on sale today. Digital downloads really aren't my bag, but I was a man on a mission, so I wasn't about to let medium preference dissuade me. There was very little that struck my fancy, but I did see that the latest album by Manic Street Preachers, Journal for Plague Lovers, was now on sale. My uncle Bob (from the U.K.) was the first person to turn me on to these guys; that would have been around 1992, if memory serves. If you're not familiar with this band, it's another one of those situations that eerily mirrors part of the plotline from the film Eddie and the Cruisers. Basically, the guitar player and primary lyricist for the Preachers, Richey Edwards, mysteriously vanished on February 1, 1995 and never resurfaced. He was declared 'presumed deceased' late last year. The reason why you probably haven't heard about this before is because these guys are from Wales, thus nobody in the U.S. gives a shit.

I read a brief description of the album and saw that this album consisted entirely of songs built around lyrics that Edwards had given to bassist Nicky Wire shortly before his disappearance. That sounded interesting enough, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger. Shortly after doing so, I realized that the album was actually released in May, and it was the digital version that saw it's release today.

Goddammit.

Okay, I don't care if it's brand new or not, I'm still reviewing it tonight.

Though I've never considered myself that big of a fan, I've always had some appreciation for Manic Street Preachers. The story is fascinating, and a lot of the music is good. They definitely sound like guys who all grew up listening to Slade, and I can dig that. The lyrics were always good, in particular the songs written by Edwards. Though never achieving much mainstream success, they did receive acclaim from many critics, and established something of a cult following.

Journal for Plague Lovers is a decent album. Primarily produced (or recorded, rather) by Steve Albini, it's starts off very strong with three good rockers: "Peeled Apples", "Jackie Collins Existential Question Time" and "Me and Stephen Hawking". This is classic Preachers, lots of crunchy hooks that remind me of Stiff Little Fingers, and really fucking bizarre lyrics. Unfortunately, it falls kind of flat after that. There are some boring ballads, namely "This Joke Sport Severed" and the hyper-strange "Facing Page: Top Left". James Dean Bradfield is an excellent hard rock singer, but his unmistakably Welsh accent doesn't lend itself very well to most ballads. In these instances, he sounds like Vince Neil being jabbed repeatedly with a number 2 pencil.

This record also includes some tracks that employ drum machines and other qualities from Electronic music, just enough that it's worth mentioning, but not enough that you can classify it as Electronica. This isn't new territory for the Preachers, but I never cared for it when they did it before. It works okay on one track, "Marlon J.D.", but it's the heavy part of that song that makes it go, and it probably would have been better without the drum machine. The rest of the album consists mostly of not great, but not offensive filler material, and closes out with the very good "William's Last Words", which sounds awfully like the suicide note of a very poetic man who desperately needed some help.

All in all, this is a pretty solid effort, and kudos to Albini (a guy whose work I have a love/hate relationship with) for doing a great job with the sound on it. It's a must have for fans, and a worthwhile purchase for people that like hard rock, and can't find anything new to listen to. Allmusic.com gave it 4 1/2 stars out of a potential 5. That's too high. Richdork gave it 7.8 out of 10. That is also too high, in my opinion, but I'm not a big believer in numerical rating or alphabetic grading systems for rock and roll records. What's the fucking point? If you're still around 20 years after you reviewed it the first time, you're going to re-review it when the 'anniversary remaster' version comes out, and it's going to get a different score.

I'll sum it up by saying this: it's a pretty good record by a pretty good band. In the pantheon of Cock Rock bands from the U.K., Manic Street Preachers are quite a bit better than Primal Scream, but not nearly as good as The Cult. Make no mistake, these guys are Cock Rock. They were lyrically superior to these bands, for sure, but if getting a political agenda across was the whole point, then playing cock rock was the wrong canvas for that painting. It's a cold harsh reality, but the reality nonetheless. The thought of Bon Scott doing Woody Guthrie is going to give me nightmares. But these guys are still pretty decent.