Today we go back to Ricked Wicky – Robert Pollard’s new band with his old friends. It’s already their second album this year. Umreti Fit, a band from Szeged in Hungary, has a new record Zvezde na plafonu, their first LP. Sonny Landreth, legendary guitar player from Louisiana is also back with the new record. Also in Louisiana, we check out a new singer songwriter here at the Little Lighthouse, Johnny Sansone. Other new names in today’s show are Mesa Cosa, a Mexican/Australian band and Tough Age from Vancouver CA. Finally, we check out a new song by Kelley Mickwee, out of Austin, recorded live in Cleveland.
Anastasia Screamed – Tornado;
Umreti Fit – Å evrole;
Mesa Cosa – Inocente;
Kelley Mickwee – Hotel Jackson;
Kelley Mickwee – Closer (Live in CLE);
Sonny Landreth – Simcoe Street;
Sonny Landreth – C’est Chaud;
Spooks – Sinister Forces;
Johnny Sansone – Lady On the Levee;
Ricked Wicky – Jargon of Clones;
Giant Sand – Every Now And Then;
Howe Gelb – Every Now And Then;
Christine Perfect – Crazy Bout You Baby (Blues Alphabet);
Count Bishops – Taking It Easy;
Stray – Take A Life;
Tough Age – Guilt.
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.
First half of our show today is dedicated to the ladies. Jolie Holland was in The Be Good Tanyas and Kelley Mickwee was with Trishas and now they have very strong solo records. Mitski put her record out as well. Pieta Brown also has a new record out and we pay attention. On the other side, Billy Childish formed a new band called CTMF and Steve Wynn put out the record formed out of his recordings ten years ago in Spain.