When Chris Brokaw, Chris Eckman and Hugo Race decided to form a trio, their main objective is to learn from each other, share experiences as artists and musicians. As you can imagine, when you put three great authors together in an unusually creative situation, great things happen. The idea was to turn to conservatively traditional forms musically and expand them with touching and deeply personal experiences. And honestly, results are so strong that yours truly was driven to tears on track 10.
6. Brimstone Howl – We Came In Peace
Omaha band Brinstone Howl took upon themselves a seemingly impossible task to fuse The Cramps with Flannery O’Connor. With help of Jim Diamond behind the knobs, We Came In Peace is a stellar proof of their successful result. Now, how in the world Rod Sterling fits into the whole picture (a third name that the band cites as an influence on their myspace page), I guess you will have to find out by listening to their music. Omaha is a twilight zone where all those crazy influences converged into one.
7. Tim Lee – 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.
8. Drones – Havilah
Unbelievably good new album by the Australian band Drones has all ingredients of a classic album. Gareth Liddiard, the leader of the band, leaves here a very strong mark as the main author, with a series of excellent song that appear abstract on their surface. But when you dig deeper, the songs are very concrete and in a strange way even storytelling. Only those stories appear to be from some really deep and dark place. But what’s best about this band, there’s absolutely nothing “droney” in their music. In fact, it’s very angular, dynamic and drenched in the rock’n’roll history as much as it’s original.
9. Thee Oh Sees – The Master’s Bedroom is Worth Spending a Night In
This San Francisco band sounds as if they were from the Memphis garage scene, if there was no a bit of their Californian irony in the whole mix. Guitar experimentation and inspired songwriting puts them very high on our list this year.
10. All The Saints – Fire on Corridor X
One of most exciting new bands in the past year comes from the South. But this is not a typical southern deal. Noisy, precise and serious arrangements, with a dose of gothic mystery but also a touch of shoegaze and grange, sounds more British than Southern. But it also doesn’t sound out of place on legendary label Touch And Go which helped the band rise from obscurity.
11. Service Industry – Limited Coverage
In the year of the most disastrous global economic collapse in the past 50 years, proletariat has found themselves completely lost and disorganized to turn things around. But if they ever figure themselves out, they have a perfect set of songs to sing along as they carry through their revolution. Texas band Service Industry could provide that soundtrack.
12. Fleshtones – Take A Good Look
History of Fleshtones came out recently as a book entitled Sweat. And it was a rough 30+ years ride. What else to expect for the only 80s legends that don’t need a reunion, since their never really broke up!? With the explosive Take A Good Look, Fleshtones reach new heights, composing an album that rivals some of the best records they put out in their entire career.
13. Evangelista – Hello Voyager
This is Carla Bozulich’s new band, named after Carla’s previous solo record. Layers of noisy songs are expertly interleaved with passages of abstractness. There is plenty of suspense here. Very ambitious, but sometimes that’s the way it should be.
14. Lucinda Williams – Little Honey
Lucinda’s new album has been in making for several years now, since I remember some of the songs on Little Honey being played live as early as 2005. On this great new album Lucinda rocks the house from the beginning to the end making her most entertaining album since Car Wheels.