OBN IIIs – Third Time To Harm (Tic Tac Totally) and Liquor Store – In The Garden (Almost Ready)

OBNIIIs and Liquor Store reviewThe 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.

The Haden Triplets (Third Man) and Kelley Mickwee – You Used To Live Here

The Haden Triplets and Kelley Mickwee review
Kelley Mickwee used to be with The Trishas. With them, she sailed safe and predictable waters of acoustic old-time Americana. This year, she’s back with a new record You Used To Live Here. The new record is by far her most interesting. In just half an hour, she shows us some incredible signing and expands her musical palette beyond the old-time country. Opening tune River Girl is a blues tune with amazing keyboards (I’d swear it gotta be Ian McLagan playing it, but I can’t find the confirmation at the moment). It really gets rocking with a great Eliza Gilkyson tune Dark Side of Town and Kelley’s Hotel Jackson. Mickwee made an album which can be played next to any Gene Clark record and live up to it.

Talking about old-time country, have you heard that Haden Triplets album? Financially, it’s a big flop for the Third Man label. The sisters got booed from TV. But we live in a tasteless world and this record doesn’t fit there…

I’m sure the three Haden sisters, Rachel, Petra and Tanya, sang together on many Haden family gatherings, but the first time wider audience got a chance to hear their old-time prairie-home interpretations was on their father’s Charlie’s album Rambling Boy. Mr Haden is a jazz musician, and it may have been a surprise to some to hear that album back in 2008. Yet, the Haden Triplets performance on that record must have been an impetus for this years album, which is a second subject of this story. A saddens hits you a bit when you have in mind that their father passed away within months from when the new record came out, but I bet he enjoyed hearing it.

In mind-blowing harmony, these three voices, usually associated to rock music, belt out a selection of old country songs, but they spice things around here and there. For instance, one of the standouts on the record is Nick Lowe’s Raining Raining.

The whole record sounds very warm. Every sound, every vocal, every instrument is recorded with mics set up pretty far, so the sounds swim together in a room. They float around and mingle. Of course, a part of the credit for such a nice live set up must go to Ry Cooder who was in charge for the instrumental backdrop of this record.

The Haden Triplets record and Kelley Mickwee record together show some new paths for the old music which is something very interesting to me. In fact, it’s not hard to imagine Haden Triplets singing Blameless from Mickwee’s record.

Bonnie Prince Billy – Singer’s Grave a Sea of Tongues (Palace/Drag City)

Bonnie Prince Billy - Singer’s Grave a Sea of TonguesCover 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.

Wolfroy is a troubling album for me. Introspective, performed as if on downers, the album failed to catch my attention back when it came out. I heard it, and okay, it’s just another Oldham record, file it and forget it. The power of songs were obscured by what I thought was a weak interpretation.

Now, Oldham goes back to nine of the Wolfroy songs and appends it with two more, but this time his interpretation is incredibly focused and straight to the point, especially the passages with the gospel duet courtesy of Ann and Regina McCrary. The new interpretations reveal the full glory of the songs and now I can indulge.

It would be interesting to find out what was Oldham’s own motivation for going back to the his old songs, but in any case, Singer’s Grave a Sea of Tongues is a wake-up call for the Americana genre. Focus equally on interpretation and songwriting and greatness will be achieved.

Flashlite #307 – The Best Albums in 2014

Sweet AppleEvery 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.

01 Sweet Apple – The Golden Age of Glitter
02 OBN IIIs – Third Time to Harm
03 Liquor Store – In the Garden
04 Outrageous Cherry – The Digital Age
05 Billy Childs – Map to the Treasure Reimagining Laura Nyro
06 The Strungs – Nothing is Possible
07 Doug Gillard – Parade On
08 Lydia Lunch & Cypress Grove – A Fistful of Desert Blues
09 First Base
10 The Haden Triplets
11 Kelley Mickwee – You Used To Live Here
12 Bonnie Prince Billy – Singer’s Grave a Sea of Tongues
13 Harp Explosion Thee One Man band – 5 Years Later
14 The Lupines – Over The Moon
15 Cheap Wine – Beggar Town
16 Radio Moscow – Magical Dirt
17 Reigning Sound – Shattered
18 Danny And The Darleans – Stink
19 Nude Beach – 77
20 Mitski – Bury Me At Makeout Creek

Mitski – Carry Me Out;
Nude Beach – I’m Not Like You;
Danny And The Darleans – It’s About My Baby;
Regning Sound – Baby, It’s Too Late;
Radio Moscow – Got The Time;
Cheap Wine – Black Man;
The Lupines – Everlasting Man;
Harp Explosion Thee One Man band – I Don’t Know;
Bonnie Prince Billy – So Far and Here We Are;
Kelley Mickwee – Take Me Home;
The Haden Triplets – Oh Take Me Back;
First Base – Get A Taste Of Your Love Again;
Lydia Lunch and Cypress Grove – St. Mark’s Place;
Doug Gillard – Upper Hand;
The Strungs – You Will Be Forgot;
Billy Childs frat. Dianne Reeves – To a Child;
Outrageous Cherry – I Think She’s Alright;
Liquor Store – Big Wheels;
OBN IIIs – Brother;
Sweet Apple – Reunion;
Sweet Apple – Boys In Her Fanclub;
Sweet Apple – Let’s Take The Same Plane.

Flashlite #306

Ivory DevilleFriends, 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!

Curved Air – Stretch;
Air – Twelve O’Clock Satanial;
King Khan And The Gris Gris – It’s a Lie;
King Khan – Bite My Tongue (Live in CLE);
Dukes of Stratosphear – Have You Seen Jackie;
Groove Uncle – Pocket_Of_Concern;
The Shivas – Let It Happen To You;
Insect Trust – Been Here And Gone So Soon;
Steppes – Make Us Bleed;
Outrageous Cherry – The Digital Age;
Ivory Deville – Abyssinia;
Van Morrison – Domino;
Mink Deville – She’s So Tough (Blue Arrow Records Feature);
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band – I Got My Mojo Working (Blues Alphabet);
Å krtice – Hit;
Partibrejkers – Hej, ti, dole u mraku..

Flashlite #305

Ian McLaganDecember 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!

The Rolling Stones – Brown Sugar;
Faces – Had Me a Real Good Time;
Faces – Bad n Ruin;
Faces – Three Button Hand Me Down;
The Rolling Stones – Happy;
The Rolling Stones – Live With Me;
Keith Richards – Whip It Up;
The Rolling Stones – Bitch;
Ian McLagan – Not Runnin Away;
Ian McLagan – Little Troublemaker;
The Rolling Stones – Miss You (Mel Collins);
Small Faces – Long Agos and Worlds Apart;
Small Faces – Up The Wooden Hills To Bedfordshire;
Warren Zevon – Join Me In L.A.;
The Rolling Stones – Rip This Joint;
Bobby Keys ft Chuck D – Can’t You Hear Me Knocking;
Ian McLagan – Beast of Burden;
Ian McLagan – Never Say Never;
Paul Westerberg – Silver Naked Ladies;
Ian McLagan and The Bump Band – Love Letter.

Flashlite #304

BeachlandThis 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!

Natural Child – Suicide is Painless;
NRBQ – I Want You Bad;
Turf War;
OBN IIIs – No Time For The Blues;
The Fuzz – Cold Stares;
Il Sogno Del Marinaio – Partisan Song;
J Mascis – Get Me;
John Doe – 4th of July;
Chamber Strings – I Come Apart;
Reigning Sound – We Repel Each Other;
Cobra Verde – My Name Is Nobody;
Mark Lanegan – Hit The City;
Mark Lanegan – Riot In My House;
Mark Lanegan – Methamphetamine Blues;
Eddie And The Hotrods – Do Anything You Want To Do;
Alejandro Escovedo – Going Down West.