Andy and Zach Gabbard are in a hard rocking, jammy band from Cincinnati called Buffalo Killers. As a band, Buffalo Killers delivered a string of five notable albums and both brothers wrote the songs. This year, Andy decided to try something on his own.
As a solo artist, Andy could expand his interests beyond the hard rock of Buffalo Killers. From love songs to a girl to a love song to his record collection, Fluff is a much more relaxing listen than any of the five he did with the band (and that’s not to say that Buffalo Killers records are a bore, au contraire).
Musically, there’s a lot of wonderful guitar solos on Fluff (Super National), great melodies (LYSM, Side B) and even an occasional Syd Barrett knockoff Octoman.
And while More sounds like the best song J Mascis never wrote, guitar riffing from the first minute of the record to the last minute record pays a wonderfully crafted homage to Nirvana. You might say, lots of bands pay an homage to Nirvana, but Andy Gabbard does it in a subtle, understated but loving fashion. I can only think of one band that did it so well: remember Monstrous from Rochester NY and their Mother Nature’s Slaves from 2006? Fluff is that good.
In contrast to its unpretentious title, Fluff stands out as the most well rounded and most thoughtful album of 2015.
Just when you think rock’n’roll is ready to be sent into history as a past musical expression that has nothing to offer to a new generation of listeners, a band like Faux Killas shows up to prove us wrong. Rock’n’roll is not dead, it just smells funny.
Warm Soda are lead by Matthew Melton from Austin TX. Symbolic Dream is their third album already, although somehow I missed the previous two records. That shouldn’t be too surprising, after the initial local success with Someone For You in 2012, the second album Young Reckless Hearts did not sound the way Melton really wanted, so it received an abysmal support. This year, Warm Soda returned with Symbolic Dream and certainly won my heart with an incredibly catchy collection of 12 songs engraved into a 12″ 45 RPM vinyl clocking barely over the 26 minute time mark.
Tav Falco’s book on Memphis Ghosts Behind Sun: Splendour Enigma and Death begins as a story narrated by the city itself, continues with a detailed and informed description of the city’s rock scene and throughout it’s never clear if it’s the city itself telling the story, Tav Falco or his alter ego Eugene Baffle. That’s what Tav Falco really is – uncatchable non-stop art concept.
Soldiers of Fortune – Early Risers
Rock improvisation hasn’t started with Endless Boogie though. Their fellow New Yorkers, Suicide, employed this type of songwriting since their inception in the late sixties. Kim Fowley, wrote some of his songs in a stream of consciousness fashion since day one. Ben Vaughn had separate albums with Alan Vega and Kim Fowley in the nineties bringing their approach to songwriting to new levels of greatness with the Cubist Blues and King of Saturday Night projects.
Koja from Belgrade’s band Disciplin A Kitchme (also known as Disciplina KiÄme) has been writing simple rock songs with seemingly endless arsenal of improvised riffs for years. His lyrics are usually one short observation or an impression that often repeats until the song is over. The rest of the tune is his heavy bass riffage, one or two drum sets and horns that are added with a great deal of improvisation and feel for rocking.
When Mick Jagger was in his late forties he recorded Primitive Cool and Steel Wheels. Certainly not the highest point of his career. But, it seems that the generation of musicians who are in their late forties these days are growing up a bit slower, putting better and better records as the time goes by. Examples are many – Nick Saloman from Bevis Frond, Matthew Smith from Outrageous Cherry, Rich Hopkins… The heroes of this story, Doug Gillard and John Petkovic are in that group.
Matthew Smith is a long time fixture on Detrot rock’n’roll scene. For years, his music is very well informed with all those genres that make rock music so exciting for all of us. His band with a revolving membership, Outrageous Cherry has been proving that for the past 20 years with some 15 odd albums. This year’s album Digital Age is in many ways a special one.
Making a good tribute is not an easy thing to do. You can have the best musicians the best songs but rarely do things fall together so nicely. On Map To The Treasure things came together perfectly and I think several things contributed to that.
Last year a surprisingly uncharacteristic album came from Lydia Lunch. She and her collaborator, guitarist Cypress Grove recorded a mighty fine, moody, rock’n’roll album called appropriately A Fistful of Desert Blues. Rarely does a record title fit the sound so well. It’s a western desert blues record that can stand next to any Gun Club record and live up to it.
The First Base LP review of any length would probably end up being too long. To state it very simply, First Base is a band from Toronto that writes simple two minute catchy melodies in the best traditions of bubblegum punk. Songs of unacquainted love, cool harmonies and unpretentious production will win your heart and have you play this record on repeat. Imagine if Ramones recorded an album where all songs were like I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend – the result would be something like First Base. First Base doesn’t want to be your dog, First Base just wants to be in your record collection. The purest fun record this year again comes from Hozac label.