Category Archives: Reviews

Reviews

The Trashed Romeos – Where Dreamers Never Go (Trashy Creatures/Burger)

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The Trashed Romeos - Where Dreamers Never GoSan Francisco is maybe the hottest rock’n’roll town at the moment. But, in the world of The Little Lighthouse, the rock’n’roll capital is still in Memphis, TN. On our year end list, six albums are from Memphis and only two are from San Francisco. But only one of those records reflects the spirit of rock’n’roll in its most traditional, old fashioned way and it’s from Memphis and it’s all about Memphis. It’s the Trashed Romeos record Where Dreamers Never Go.

Trashed Romeos is put together by Greg Roberson who has been a fixture in the Memphis underground through his involvement with Reigning Sound and Tiger High. Rick Steff from Lucero and Memphis musical guru Adam Hill also joined in to help. As the tagline says, this record is a love letter to Memphis and in particular, the bands that gathered around the legendary Jim Dickinson. The concept was clear, Trashed Romeos took their favorite obscure Memphis rock’n’roll and garage singles and covered each of them. Jim Dickinson appears as a songwriter in several songs and on two clear highlights on the record. His own obscure song The Grass is Never Greener, which is almost impossible to find in the original and he also closes the record with a touching title song, posthumously becoming one of the Trahsed Romeos.

Horn section is added to several songs, which contributes to the sheer ferocity of the resulted sonic delivery. Trashed Romeos gave us a gift of past and they extended the life of these obscure underground singles now delivered in a fresh, crisp new package. This is a must-have for all rock’n’roll devotees and scholars.

Reviews

The Oblivians – Desperation (In The Red)

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The Oblivians - DesparationOblivians are a band from Memphis, the godfathers of the garage underground scene in that city that just broke up when they were getting to be known worldwide in the late nineties. They called it quits after a great collaboration with Quintron in 1997. The band went separate ways, Greg Cartwright established himself as one of the most important songwriters with the new band Reigning Sound, Jack Yarber became the king of the minimalist garage and Eric Friedl was busy running the famous Goner Records label and playing gutter punk with True Sons of Thunder. This year they decided to ditch their real surnames again and return to The Oblivians.

It’s like all those years of separate careers did not even happen. The new record is a classic Oblivians chaotic mix of dirt and melody. Timeless quality comes form the fact that they recorded the whole thing on scotch tape, at least that’s how it sounds like. Inputs to the record are brotherly divided up by all three of them and among the excellent originals that already threaten to become classics, there are some hilarious cover choices: Paul Butterfield Band, Andy Griffith and probably the catchiest song on the record Call The Police which brings back Quintron and Miss Pussycat and it was written by Stephanie McDee – a popular local hip hop entertainer from New Orleans who mixes rap and zydeco traditions.

A few technical notes on the vinyl release. Cover on the font is a great photograph, but it’s a low resolution digital photo blown up to the 12×12″ record cover. Inside photography is beautiful. There is no clear information on the record or on the cover where it was mastered or pressed. I can’t say much about the vinyl cut, after all, the whole record sounds like it was recorded on a scotch tape. But that sort of visual and aural lo-fi chaos is what represents The Oblivians authentically. Anything more polished would be a disaster.

Reviews

Mikal Cronin – II (Merge)

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Mikal Cronin - IIMikal Cronin was our year end champion back in 2011, topping our list of the best albums here at The Little Lighthouse with his debut solo album. He hails from the most active rock’n’roll scene in the past few years, from San Francisco. Out of many excellent bands and authors from out there, Mikal stands out with fully mature songwriting and diverse records. His new album achieved a great success in the ears of public and critic equally. He was given an honor of being published on Merge records, which put a lot of energy in promotion and Mikal became one of the best known faces in the indie rock world today. The record itself finds him in further exploring the world of adulthood. But don’t expect any answers from Cronin. Indeed, this record opens more questions than offering answers. Am I wrong? Do I shout? Do I let it go? Do I need it? Am I different man? Can I help you? Can I try? Have I been learning nothing all along? The only two answers we are given are “I’m not ready” and “I don’t know”.

Musically, the record reminds me on Love’s Forever Changes in the mood and usage of strings. The mood is melancholic, but it can also rock. Strings take a central role in several songs and Cronin employed real strings, rather than relying on synthesizers. Too bad that the track Better Man was not included in the album, but one can find it on the Garage Swim compilation and I recommend including it as the last track when listening to the record.

In short, exceptionally strong second album further establishes Cronin as a serious singer songwriter.

A few technical notes on the vinyl version. The “A” side of the vinyl is one of the best quality pressings I’ve seen in years. Very clean and consistent mastering throughout, equally in the inner and outer grooves of the record. Unfortunately, that can’t also be said for the “B” side, since my copy of the record has a slight eccentricity. There is nothing in the copy that would reveal what plant pressed my copy. The cover says that the record was mastered at Fantasy Studios in San Francisco, but it is unclear whether this is digital or vinyl master.

Reviews

Chris Cacavas – Love’s Been Re-Discontinued (Cactus Head)

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Chris Cacavas - Love's Been Re-DiscontinuedChris Cacavas (ex Green On Red) had an album back in 2009 called Love’s Been Discontinued which we pronounced as the best album that year at The Little Lighthouse. This year, Chris Cacavas returned with an album which he called Love’s Been Re-Discontinued which was very similar to the 2009, not just in title. The songs on the new album were left over from the material written for the 2009 album and Cacavas felt a need to go back to those songs again.

Chris’ words are in italic for the rest of this text: Yes, at the time between 2007 and 2009 I recorded over twenty basic tracks with bass, guitar and drums. I was working on about fifteen of them doing vocals, overdubs etc. and in the end twelve of them ended up on Love’s Been Discontinued. At the beginning of this year (2013) I went back to revisit and complete the rest of those songs and those ten tracks are now on Love’s Been Re-Discontinued.

The lyrics in both of those record seem to talk about a break up. But it turns out, the topic does not necessarily relates to something that Chris experienced in his life. To be honest I’ve only had two “real” or long term relationships in my life. I’m happy to say I’m still in the second and although there have been hard times that brought us to the brink of breaking up we’ve decided to dedicate ourselves to each other and to investing the time and conscious effort to maintain a healthy, happy and respectful relationship. At the moment it’s working very well! I think you only need one real love or one devastating breakup for song material to last a lifetime.

Chris believes in love, muses about it and wants to learn about it. I believe love is real although I can’t tell you exactly what “love” is. I think it means so many things to so many people but I do believe the common thread for the definition of love comes from the first love we experienced and that came, of course, from our parents. I’m sure some would say “But my parents didn’t love me” and I can only say they loved you to the best of their ability. This is a very complex subject and I am certainly no scholar but I’m still willing to learn. Like death belongs to life so do breakups belong to relationships. Clearly the younger a man or woman is the less knowledge they have about relationships – what does this person want from me? What do I want from this person? What is the importance of companionship? What am I willing to compromise / sacrifice to be in this relationship? And do I make these compromises unconditionally? It’s a learning process and with any lesson more teachers and experiences give you more insight and confidence to decide what is best for you. Often people will go from one dysfunctional relationship to the next and usually blame the partner for the failure of the relationship without looking at the one constant that was in every relationship – themselves. “Happily Ever After” and “Until Death Do Us Part” are both lovely concepts that look good on paper but, sadly, don’t work that well in the real world. I think it’s a very individual thing. Some couples want their partnership to be recognized and certified by the church and others are willing to make a lifelong commitment to each other without this tradition. Both are okay by me, whatever works for those couples – hetero or gay. I would say breakups have less to do with rebellion and more to do with personal turmoil.

When I asked Chris what was the criteria for the song inclusion between the 2009 record and this new one, he was relieved that I stopped grilling him about the subject of love. Back to the record *phew*. With the 2009 release I wanted to use the crème de la crème and I wanted the record to be listenable from beginning to end, to have a flow that you wouldn’t want to change in a playlist or with your players shuffle feature. As I started working on the songs I noticed some were a bit too heavy (musically) and others weren’t really complete with lyrics and so on and in the end the songs that ended up on Love’s Been Discontinued pretty much chose themselves, that is to say, they rose like cream to the top ! With Love’s Been ReDiscontinued I took all the remaining tracks and and finished lyrics, sang them, added a few overdubs and that was it! Unfortunately there would have been another twelve (instead of ten) songs but due to technical difficulties two songs had disappeared from the hard drive, oh well.

I had the clever idea to call this record “Love’s Been Re-Discontinued” because the songs are from the same session as the previous release. In retrospect, I probably should have treated it as it’s own individual entity and not the step brother of Love’s Been Discontinued – and not just because people I trust have told me so…

So, it’s clear from Chris’s answers that he did not have an ambition to create two volumes with deep examination and (re-examination) on love and breakup, but rather the topic and songs somehow chose themselves like that. It’s one of those things where the art truly realizes itself in the ears of a beholder. We can choose to listen to it as a collection of strong songs, or a topical examination of love. In any case, both of the records are among the strongest material that’s been recorded by Chris since the earliest days with Green on Red. It is hard not to notice, though, that both Chris and his former band-mate Dan Stuart recently put out excellent records that are deep studies on the subject of love and in particular discontinuities and turmoil that happen as love evolves. Dan used a pseudonym of Marlowe Billings, but it is apparent that he is writing about the troubles he was going through directly, while Cacavas’ records are a bit more fictional based on an interview I had with him. Art is impossible to quantify, and we should not even try to understand which approach is better. In any case, Stuart and Cacavas are still capable of creating striking pieces of art, perhaps they are stronger at that than ever.

Reviews

Michael Tarbox – Works and Days

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Michael Tarbox - Works and DaysMichael Tarbox used to lead a great band called Tarbox Ramblers. Hailing from the Boston area, Tarbox Ramblers were the leaders of the new blues revival for the past 15 years with a blend of academic and heartfelt approach that won our hearts. The first album for Rounder Records in 2000 was a furious collection of authentic and raw blues which relied on the primitive traditions on North Mississippi blues and Appalachian folk. The second album also for Rounder A Fix Back East was a step towards rock roots, split produced by one and only Jim Dickinson and Paul Q. Kolderie who we know best from his work with Morphine. Then, a long decade with sporadic limited edition discography followed.

Through all that time, Michael Tarbox all but stood idle. He toured with a revolving line up the country multiple times, even entered the studio a few times. The songs were ready, but the band had a chronic problem with drummers. Without the record label, struggling to keep the band together, and perhaps some other reasons, Michael decided to crowdfund his next record last year, without much help from the outside. The new album, Works and Days is the outcome.

Without pretensions, the record is simply imagined as a collection of songs, without a particular theme that connects them. This is understandable, the record has been conceived over a large period of time, but the variety actually contributes to the overall quality of this new record. In the long period since 2004, I can only imagine that there was a lot of songs to choose from, but Michael and his producer friend Chris Rival have good ears and experience to identify those songs that worked particularly well in the studio at the time of recording.

In essence, the record is an emotional aggregate of many changes that Michael went through. The friendships that were evolving, struggles that they were going through and the arrival of his daughter. But the good news is that the relief is in the art. This truly comes through in this record.

Sound-wise, the new record dwells even more into rock territory. While the first record was almost entirely filled with traditionals, the new record, much like the second one is filled with original songs. From wild rocking Hey Mister Starlight over Lou Reed-like The Night Train To Chelsea to soft and almost spoken word title song The Tower of Works and Days, there is a little bit of every rock’n’roll taste on this record.The final result is intimate and exciting, and for me at least, long awaited record that will stick around for quite some time.

First published on rockxs.com.

Reviews

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Eyes Like The Sky

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King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Eyes Like The SkyWhile Tame Impala is becoming one of the most popular bands in the world at the moment, there are also other bands, making up together a very strong and promising new psychedelic and garage rock scene over in Australia. We learned this fact last year thorough a very interesting tribute to the legendary Nuggets. A number of young Australian rockers covered each one song from the original Nuggets for its fortieth anniversary and the result was the new compilation record known as Nuggets: Antipodean Interpolations of the First Psychedelic Era. One of the central roles on that compilation record was a seven-piece with a silly band name King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard who covered Open My Eyes by The Nazz. They also have a new record out called Eyes Like The Sky, which is a topic of today’s review.

I know very little about King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. The photographs of the band clearly shows that they are quite young and a few texts mention that they come from Melbourne. Sound-wise, it appears that they are very imaginative and very competent musicians. The record that we are reviewing today has been posted on their band camp page for some time now and the vinyl record release is scheduled for April this year in Australia.

The record is a concept effort centered around a wild west tale in the USA, set right after the civil war. My perception that the record works as some kind of a soundtrack to an imaginary western or a novel or maybe even a comic book. Western imagery is obviously close to the spaghetti westerns but another close comparison is what one can find for instance in the Italian series of graphic novels about Ken Parker, created by Berardi and Milazzo, and it covers about the same historical period.

Gunshots, galloping horses, barking dogs, blacksmith tools and native American chants are all worked well into the larger musical picture. But what really works amazingly well on this record is the narration, here performed by the Australian singer and songwriter Broderick Smith who also wrote the actual story so effectively dramatized musically by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Mr. Smith does the narration in a flawless American accent, despite being an Englishman who moved with parents to Australia at a very young age.

The story is short and moves quickly, but there are a lot of memorably poetic moments which are often accentuated by the musical dramatization of the band. Check these lines out: “One thing a white man should never do is move towards an Apache, because you can never get there. How do you catch dust in the wind?”

Broderick Smith is virtually unknown outside his country, but hw is fairly famous in his homeland. Multi-talented, he had an early success with rock bands Carson and The Dingos in the early seventies and more recently, he has a steady acting career on Australian television. It would be interesting to find out how this collaboration came about, but the news from Australia are coming very slowly.

The whole package is a nail-baiting drama that flows like a great rock record, despite the novelty feel to it. Well done lads!

First published on rockxs.com.

Reviews

Rich Hopkins And Luminarios – Buried Treasures

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Rich Hopkins And Luminarios - Burried TreasuresNew American rock was a musical label worth carrying in the late eighties. Being a part of that scene meant that you belong to the most innovative group of musicians on the scene, and that you possess a direct link to more traditional rock roots. One of the bands that proudly carried the “new American rock” label back in the day was The Sidewinders from Tucson, AZ.

As it happened at the time, new American rock bands had excellent songs, even better live shows, but often somewhat thin albums. The groups that belonged to the genre were deeply aware of their quality and cared enough to make records accessible to the eighties market. As a result, those records often suffered from somewhat weak production. So, when Rich formed a new band Luminarius in the nineties, his music started having an edgier and a more appropriate production on the long plays.

Rich Hopkins and Luminarios is not the most obvious example to choose from when it comes to new American rock today, but they are one of the most consistent. Rich’s albums contain reliably great songwriting and sparking guitars, whichever you decide to pick.

Nineties was a great opportunity to ride on the alternative country wave, which definitely had its roots in the new American rock, but for some reason, there was not much interest in Rich’s native USA for the Luminarios. Yet, he struck a solid following in Europe, especially in Germany and Spain.

For his new album, Hopkins returns to Tucson. The record is a lengthy one, it goes on for an hour, but it will keep your attention. In fact, in a line of Hopkins’ consistent albums, this one stands as a crown achievement, without a filler, without a downer. Almost every song contains a catchy riff and climax is always reserved for Rich’s crunchy solo.

The central place in the album is reserved for Friend of The Shooter, an epic, disturbing story about a mind gone mad. It’s about someone Rich knew and who turned out be a mass murderer. Although Neil Young appears now and then as the strongest influence for Hopkins, on Friend of The Shooter, this is the most apparent.

Another interesting thing about this album is that is also contains an extra disc that goes for almost another hour, which contains various ambient and folky improvisations on two guitars, acoustic or electric which is the biggest sonic departure for Hopkins on any of his records. Although, I am usually not a fan of such lengthy experiments, Hopkins did a fantastic job bringing in the trippy desert sounds of Arizona and Mexico on a record. The second cd finishes on a very optimistic note, with an disarmingly beautiful and playful Ragged Hearts. The long but exciting record finally ends with a rooster- doodle-doo, bringing a definite smile on the listener’s face.

First published on rockxs.com.

Reviews

The Golden Boys – Dirty Fingernails

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The Golden Boys - Dirty FingernailsGolden Boys are a five piece from Austin, Texas. The best known name in the band is John Wesley Coleman III, who is known in Austin and elsewhere not only as one of the Golden Boys, but also as a singer songwriter, stand up comedian and a trash poet. But, according to what I could find about the band, it seems that Matt Hoopengardner and Bryan Schmitz, on two guitars and main vocals, are the main driving forces behind the Golden Boys.

Dirty Fingernails is their fifth album and it could be said that it’s the most mature of them all so far. One can find a wide berth of musical genres, from power pop, garage rock and punk rock. The rhythm is fast and the sound is amplified, drum and keyboard driven. Song Outta The Dark even has some horns. Daddy’s Horsewife sounds like a hardcore punk parody. But other than that the topic is mostly love and in general.

The songwriting is very pedant, although the sound is decidedly sloppy.

Garage rocking Curtains, sounds like something that could be on legendary Spoons album Voxin’, although I would be very surprised that the Golden Boys made a conscious connection there.

The first tune on the B-side is Older Than You, obviously on the topic of age difference between the two lovers. It has an extremely catchy one guitar string riff, reminding me on Empire’s Bob Andrews, something that he would employ on Expensive Sound.

The last tune on the record We Are Young is a perfect closer, the unofficial greatest hit of 2012 in my mp3 player. It’s another song on the record about getting older, an anthem about growing up, a sort of a sister song to the Replacement’s Bastards of Young. It is definitely a standout on an album that is nevertheless excellent. With Older Than You on position B1 and We Are Young closing the record, we get a full circle on one side of the record and the topic of coming out of the age becomes the dominant one. Still, it’s not definitely not a downer. It’s a celebration, and it a fun record to play on repeat.

Technical note: the vinyl record is duplicated at the United Records Pressing plant from Nashville TN. Their prints are all over the place – some the best around, some are substandard. My copy of the Golden Boys is very well done – no complaints sound-wise although there are specked scratch patterns on the surface, which is something one just has to get used to at the United Records.

First published on rockxs.com.

Reviews

Gentleman Jesse – Leaving Atlanta

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Gentleman Jesse - Leaving AtlantaJesse Lee Smith is a fellow that hails from the Atlanta rock’n’roll scene that gave us many interesting garage rock bands in the past few years. One of the bands that started it all was the Ramones influenced quintet The Carbonas and Jesse played bass in it. He had a somewhat more complex vision on what his music should be, so he started a solo career with a rotating line up of musicians simply referred to as “his men”.

His vision was first widely exposed on an excellent solo debut album from 2008 and now we have a sequel on the second album called Leaving Atlanta. The musical spectrum Jesse took on his solo albums is decidedly power pop oriented, but also informed with the English pub rock scene and Stiff records. Indeed, the cover art of the first album is a clear nod to Elvis Costello and his Last Year’s Model.

The new album doesn’t bring much new, which in this case is a very good thing. Leaving Atlanta is a collection of extremely catchy tunes on love, loneliness and going out and partying, just like the first record. Both albums remind me a lot on the 1980 Stiff records classic Where Are All The Nice Girls by Any Trouble.

The musicianship is heavily based on the jangling Rickenbacker guitar sound and perhaps one could argue that the digital version of the album (CD or mp3) is mixed a bit too much in mid and high frequencies. But, perhaps the Jesse wanted to have a nice sound on the vinyl, which is definitely achieved. The old plastic version of the record plays great and it sounds like something recorded in 1979. On Stiff I might add once more!

First published on rockxs.com.

Reviews

Dan Stuart – The Deliverance of Marlowe Billings

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Dan Stuart - The Deliverance of Marlowe Billings After several years of personal hell, Dan Stuart is finally back. His old band, legendary Green On Red, disbanded in 1992, and Dan tried to continue solo. After a record with Al Perry in 1993 and the first solo album in 1995, Dan disappeared from the music business.

There were many different stories and legends on what he was going through in those years, but it wasn’t until ten years later that we heard of Dan again. He first regrouped with Green On Red to play a few shows in Europe and USA (a live DVD came out of that), and then put out a record with Steve Wynn (a studio and live sequels to their legendary Danny And Dusty project) and one with the producer JD Foster (in an ad-hoc band called The Slummers). Now, Mr. Stuart is back with a masterpiece – new LP called The Deliverance of Marlowe Billings.

Apparently, Marlowe Billings is Dan’s alter ego, which he uses sometimes in his new home in Mexico. I read in Uncut that he has found new energy over there after living in New York and separating from his wife. These stories should be taken with a grain of salt, since Dan posted on his facebook that some of the claims were false in that article.

We can read poetical interpretations of this story in the lyrics of the new record, though. Dan is singing “I miss the city and I miss the lights, I miss my family all over the night. But New York’s a liar, we both know it’s true, just like your lover whose soul understands you. I’ll never go back to that cold hard ground, where everyone’s searching for what can’t be found”.

These words can be found in the opening song of the new record and they are certainly dark, but the mood of the record overall is far from being disconsolate. This is the main difference between Dan’s old record Can O’ Worms from 1995 and this one today. While Can O’ Worms is a deep dark record of a man loosing a grip of his own fate, Deliverance is a record of a man who’s back in control. By realizing that he was looking for what can’t be found, Dan liberated his soul and now, on the new record we can also find lighthearted tunes such as Gap-toothed Girl or Gonna Change – a beautiful Brill-Building sunshine pop with disarming oo-la-lah’s .

Another record that calls for comparisons is also Love’s Been Discontinued by Dan’s old band-mate Chris Cacavas, which came out in 2009 and which I pronounced the album of the year in the Little Lighthouse year end list of that season. I still don’t know what was going on in Cacavas’ private life at the time, but if I trust the lyrics, its a very honest record of a man who has recently went through a break up. One thing that is common to Cacavas’ Love’s Been Discontinued and Dan’s Deliverance can be summed up in Dan’s words: “yes, love will kill you, so why pretend”. Turn it into some really cool art and see what happens. “You can never steal this poet’s soul.” This brings me to a film I like, called Singles back in 1992. There’s a mime over there who can’t shut up and says: “love disappears, baby”.

I must also add at the end that the musicianship on this record is truly exceptional. The band backing up ol’ Dan is the Italian group Sacri Cuori and the sound is thick and full. Surely, a part of the credit for this great sounding record also must go to JD Foster. Foster and Antonio Gramentieri from Sacri Couri were also with Dan in The Slummers. It looks like the new record leaves Dan in a very healthy place and I have a feeling we can expect more great stuff from Dan and the boys in the near future. Right now, you can enjoy this disc and also see Dan Stuart who is touring Europe currently.

First published on rockxs.com.