The two records that are subject of this review have something in common. They are seamlessly reintroducing hard rock into the garage-rock club scene and it’s an incredibly welcoming and rejuvenating moment in the newer rock’n’roll history. These two bands do it with pride.
Orville Bateman Neeley III is up and coming new royalty of the larger rock’n’roll scene. His initials make the name of the OBN IIIs band name. Although a new name to me, Neeley has been present on the Austin underground scene since 2011 and this is his third studio album already. After a quick 1-2-3-4 is counted out, the album begins confidently with No Time For The Blues. And before the third song Uncle Powderbag runs out, you already have an idea that this album is a good, fast rocking garage rock ordeal.
But then Queen Glom and Beg to Christ kick in and something happens there. These two are not your generic garage rock tunes. Neeley slows down and gets heavy. Listening to those two songs, you only miss a whirling Vertigo label in the middle of the LP. The songs turn to hard rock for depth and bravado. When I heard that sound, I knew I missed it very much.
Anthemic Parasites goes by and Worries close the record by going back to the garage sounds with some incredible guitar soloing in the middle.
Liquor Store come from the suburbs of New York City. They also bring out that old hard rock sound, especially in tunes like Pile of Dirt and Lynchmob, but the record is more than that. They depart from hard rock more than they stick to it, showing a sense of humor with Vodka Beach and Titty Was Loc’d.
In The Garden is a big, rich sounding record. Satin Dollars defend the glory of the New York City, sounding like a lost Dolls song. Harp sounds like a great addition and multiple voice chanting adds to the excitement. On Midnight Walker and some other moments on the record, Liquor Store sound like an 80s rust-belt rock band Death of Samantha.
Layers of the instruments and complexity from both records that we are reviewing here, proved a bit challenging to recreate on the live stage, when I saw OBN IIIs and Liquor Store playing live in Cleveland. Particularly, the hard rock edge proudly displayed on both records did not come through in the live shows, but both bands tried hard and still made memorable shows. I will be definitely looking forward for their future shows and records. I sure hope that the hard rock sound sticks around in today’s rock’n’roll scene. OBN IIIs and Liquor Store will be remembered as the flag bearers of this new trend.
Cover albums are a fad of this millennium. They give an artist a chance to show off their interpretive abilities and taste. Will Oldham’s new record is also an exercise in interpretation, but Oldham doesn’t go back to other people’s songs. He goes back three years behind, to his own album Wolfroy Goes To Town.
Every musical outlet out there has a year-end list. Little Lighthouse is not an exception, although the order should be understood conditionally. It does not rely on objective measurements, it simply compiles feeling towards albums that preoccupied my attention through 2014. Number one is Sweet Apple. Yours truly marginally participated in making of that record, and perhaps there’s a strong bias towards it for me. You would be right about that. But this particular record is a fun collection of songs without much pretension. What more can you ask from an LP? OBN IIIs and Liquor Store are great new bands which made ambitiously sounding records that rock. They even bring out a long forgotten idiom of hard rock, back into the modern rock’n’roll dictionary and it made me realize how much that sound is missed in the music world today. Together with some important reissues, these two albums mark the revival of that lost musical genre. Those two records are so rich with sounds and ideas that live performances of these two bands must be stripped down to a skeleton. Outragous Cherry has an astonishing return, with one of their best records ever. First Base and Strungs go back to the basic three chords and short songs – a formula that oh so often works great. Lydia Lunch calls out the ghost of Jeffrey Lee Pierce like no other artist before. Doug Gillard attempted to make a good easy listening record and ended up with a timeless masterpiece which will be remembered well in his opus. Billy Childs makes a loving tribute to Laura Nyro which borders madness and saccharine. Who’d have thought those two “lands” share a border? Kelley Mickwee and Haden Triplets show interesting ways to keep bluegrass alive and it trips my mind how most folks out there think negatively of this wonderful Haden Triplets record. Bonnie Prince Billy takes some old songs and brings in a new life to them with an incredibly focused interpretation… and so on. All the best in 2015, actually 2014 wasn’t that bad musically as it may appear on the surface.
Friends, a couple of new things this time. King Khan has a new band called Gris Gris and we hear a tune from their new record Murder Burgers. The Shivas are also back with a new record called You Know What To Do. We introduce Groovy Uncle from Britain, Ivory Deville from LA, and a new band from Partibrejker Cane, called Å krtice. They rock – we rock!
December 2 and December 3 of 2014 were two devastating days for rock’n’roll. We lost two true greats, Bobby Keys and Ian McLagan. McLagan started in Small Faces, continued with Faces had some amazing solo records, toured with his Bump Band. Bobby Keys played saxophone and greatly contributed to the golden period of The Rolling Stones – their Sticky Fingers and Exile of Main Street. Ian and Bobby crossed paths several times, on Faces, Ian’s solo records and the most recently actually in Cleveland – for the Rolling Stones tribute organized by the rock hall. This show is dedicated to the two of them. Their sounds are part of the very fabric of rock’n’roll. Thanks comrades!
This time, we review some of the best live performances in Cleveland in the past year. We have a segment called Live in Cleveland every week in which we feature some of the recent or historical field recordings from the live shows in this town. Today, we review all the shows from the past year and feature some tunes that we did not play yet at The Little Lighthouse. This how is dedicated to the bands who play their hearts out often in front of the sparse audience and to the live halls that persistently keep Cleveland as one of the most important stops on every band’s itineraries. Beachland, Now That’s Class, Happy Dog – you all rock!