Second effort for the two rockinest ladies on contemporary music scene. The new album is stretching beyond the neo-blues genre, with “When We’re Dead And Gone†having a melody of a 60s girl group hit and a nod to blaxploitation in “Foxy Brownâ€. In addition, Melissa and Laura are capable of pulling the most exciting live show you can imagine. This was my favorite album in 2007, during the hiatus of the show.
Category Archives: Reviews
Tim Lee 3 – Good2b3
Tim Lee is a southern gentleman with a respectable career in rock’n’roll behind him. He started out in Mississippi’s own new wave outfit The Windbreakers. Like all proper things that come from the south, Tim’s new wave was deeply rooted in rock’n’roll traditions while still being always fresh. Forward thinking college rock crowd at the time embraced The Windbreakers as a rare jewel and the band kept their cult status throughout the years. Tim also had a very special interstate adventure with Matt Piucci when they gathered Gone Fishin’ recorded a great lost masterpiece Can’t Get Lost When You’re Goin’ Nowhere in 1987. But, much like his friend Steve Wynn, Tim Lee is experiencing a new, exceptionally strong artistic inspiration in past several years with his new trio Tim Lee 3. Baring the sound down to the bones – bass, guitars and drums with added confessional lyrics to top it all, Lee and his trio deliver a straight-forward rock with honesty rarely found today and any day. The new album Good2b3 (Paisley Pop Label 2008), is third in row aimed at the same direction. What adds extra oil to this burning hot platter is contribution from Susan Bauer Lee, bass player of the band and Tim’s wife, who contributes as an author and performer as much as Tim does on this new album. A special credit for this record definitely goes to its engineers Craig Schumacher and Chris Schultz who run Wave Lab Studios in Tucson AZ and who are obviously responsible for capturing the greasy, Crazy-horse-like, live sound of the band.
The Birdinumnums – She Say Go
The Birdinumnums are coming from Los Angeles. It’s a new showcase for Pam Moore who used to be in The Neptunas, Cheap Chick (and several other bands) and Andrew Chojnacki from the Peachfuzz. It’s a power-pop deal with gorgeous melodies and vocal equally split between Pam and Andrew. Their first CD, She Say Go is a six-song ep available on their CDbaby page. The playlist is doubled, however, with the appendix containing the instrumental versions of the songs. Birdinumnums have an excellent balance between humor, disarming beauty of their melodies and a dense radiophonic vibe that’s impossible to ignore. Check them out at http://www.thebirdinumnums.com/.
Kathy McCarty – Another Day In The Sun
Once upon a time in Austin TX there was an extraordinary band called Glass Eye. Kathy and Brian were in it. Glass Eye had a timeless sound that was difficult to place. With full drum sound, heavy bass and Katy’s spacey vocals, they were completely different than any other 80s underground act. You could say they were ahead of their time. Kathy and Brian reunite for the new album in 2005 for the first time since the Glass Eye broke up with original songs, although Kathy and Brian published two cds of Daniel Johnston songs in the nineties. Another Day In The Sun is an incredibly strong LP. Had I heard it in 2005 when it came out originally, it would’ve been my favorite that year. Since I missed it then, it was by far my favorite spin this year.
Apparently, I’ve been out of touch for awhile – Glass Eye reunited in 2006 and put out an album that year which I still need to hear…
Mona Lisa Overdrive – The Up-Tight Sessions
As the google search indicates, Australian four Luke, David, Jess and Alex are among several bands that named their band Mona Lisa Overdrive after William Gibson’s novel. In todays alienating world, many readers seem to find a shelter in cyber-reality and super-powers of Matrix that in Gibson’s novels has god-like powers. So you’d expect some futuro-escapist crap from these guys… Contrary, Mona Lisa Overdrive echoes White Light White Heat era Velvet Underground and lists pretty much an alphabet of rock’n’roll on their myspace page.
The Up-tight Sessions, their impromptu EP is available over there for a free download and it contains five intense tunes to rattle your cold rock’n’roll bones. Finding a truly good band on myspace is like looking for a needle in a haystack so stumbling upon the Mona Lisa Overdrive is a real fortune.
Mark Lanegan: Bubblegum
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When Lanegan left us early this year with his mini album called Here Comes The Weird Chill it was just for a brief period to quickly hint what might be a creative peak of his career. On this new album he took only one song off of the Here Comes The Weird Chill (Methamphetamine Blues) and added a busload of new ones. Sonically, Bubblegum is an immediate continuation of Here Comes The Weird Chill, but with even more focus and even more great songs. His past solo albums were all somehow downbeat and it seemed that the crazy rocking days of early Screaming Trees (where he was a singer) were long gone. But, this one changes it all! If songs are not raw full with energy a-la The Stooges, then they are full of suspense, waiting to burst out of your speakers. Production is raw and Mark did it himself. I can’t help thinking that Mark was influenced by the new blues scene and all those crazy garage rockers from Memphis along with obvious influences in Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart. But don’t be scared – this album is good for everyday listening in every place, every occasion, suitable for any mood – bubblegum in one word! Another interesting appearance is backing vocal of PJ Harvey. I was never too impressed by her solo albums, but whenever I heard her as a backup singer (here and recently on Giant Sand and Gordon Gano records), I totally love it. http://www.marklanegan.com/ is his official site, but much more interesting stuff is on his fan page http://www.onewhiskey.com/. His label streams his latest video on-line – it’s really worth checking out.
Mark Lanegan: Here Comes That Weird Chill
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(Written in January 2004). The year just started and we already got an album that will definitely play an important role in the year’s best selection! This is a new one by Mark Lanegan and it’s louder and stronger than any Screaming Trees album, let alone his solo albums. It’s rough, it’s tough, it’s experimental, but still it rock and moves just like it should. His voice is still recognizable even though it often distorted by various studio effects. Drums are raw and guitars cut like razor blades. This is for the first time in years that Lanegan doesn’t collaborate with his long time companion Mike Johnson, so that in itself indicates a significant stylistic move. This is a unique represent of this loud new blues style that can be found for example on Christ Whitley’s album Terra Incognita, or Tarbox Ramblers, but it also has a favor of raw garage sound such as we know from Detroit and Memphis scenes – but perhaps in a little nicer package plus Tom Waits poetics. The album runs for only 30 minutes, but that’s cool – it just makes you wanna play it again. New cd-albums normally last too long anyway. LPs used to be much more carefully thought of. They say this is only a teaser before the full length album comes out! Woohoo!
http://www.onewhiskey.com/
The Dirtbombs: Dangerous Magical Noise
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(Written in February 2004) There’s nothing dangerous about this album, perhaps the title it’s just a way of making it sound cool. But what’s really cool about this album is not its cover, it’s not the title, it’s not the fact that the dude behind the sound is legendary garage face of the Detroit rock scene, Mick Collins. What’s cool about it is the music. In modern rock scene, often when you peel off all the hype, somewhere in the moment when the cellophane of the cd is taken off, and the cd enters into the player, that’s when the magic stops. It’s different with this kinda noise. It’s magical from the ironic crowd cheer in the openingStart The Party, over all the crazy guitars and screams far in VU’s red area to the lengthy boogie of FIDO. Somewhere in the middle of the record you get the real jewel, Motor City Baby – Patti Labelle and George Clinton wore the glam outfits, but in this song Mick Collins is the only black artist who came dangerously close to glam aesthetics. Of course – that can only be a good thing. This album is a hot item, perhaps the most exciting thing Collins did since the revolutionary days of The Gories. He knows rock’n’roll – he’s a guy who you should trust. http://www.thedirtbombs.net/.