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.
In fact there is a song by Jeffrey Lee Pierce on it called St. Mark’s Place. Cypress Grove had an earlier collaboration with Pierce on the Ramblin’ Jeffrey Lee record in 1992. Although, Lydia’s and Cypress’ version of St. Mark’s Place is well known from the We Are Only Riders tribute to Pierce, it serves well on the Fistful of Desert Blues album to remind us where the whole thing originated from.
While We Are Only Riders is a wonderful album, it maybe lacks some focus with so many musicians trying to find their way to express their admiration for Jefferey Lee’s work, A Fistful of Blues overcomes that problem easily by delivering plenty of originals. And there’s a cool variety to keep your attention. From dark and moody ramble of the opener Sandpit to the rocking Jericho.
Another cool cover worth mentioning is Mark Lanegan’s Revolver which fits perfectly as one of the focal points of this album. Cool reinterpretation of Van Morrison’s TB Sheets with Walter Daniels on harp makes a wonderful closer and makes you moan for more.
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.
Today’s show is dedicated mainly to my favorite reissues this year. The two comps I enjoyed the most were Mojo’s Heavy Nuggets III and Numero Group’s Warfaring Strangers Darkscorch Canticles, as a roadmap to the new band on some cool underground hard rock from the seventies. There were some excellent power pop reissues as well. Anyway, dive into today’s show for a complete list. Also, about a third of today’s show is dedicated to songs from some cool albums which did not make our top 20 albums, but were still cool enough to mention. This concludes our year end review, and we go back to our regularly irregular programming starting next week.
Nowadays, singles and eps come out in various different forms. The old vinyl and CD, but it also can be a download, a video… So, it’s not easy to navigate through this mess. So, all singles and short albums up to four songs are what I call “short form”. Todays list compiles a list of my favorite singles this year. The second half of the show is dedicated to some of the albums that I liked last year, but that somehow did not end up on the top 20 last week. Happy new year everyone!
The two records that are subject of this review have something in common. They are seamlessly reintroducing hard rock into the garage-rock club scene and it’s an incredibly welcoming and rejuvenating moment in the newer rock’n’roll history. These two bands do it with pride.
Cover albums are a fad of this millennium. They give an artist a chance to show off their interpretive abilities and taste. Will Oldham’s new record is also an exercise in interpretation, but Oldham doesn’t go back to other people’s songs. He goes back three years behind, to his own album Wolfroy Goes To Town.
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.
Friends, a couple of new things this time. King Khan has a new band called Gris Gris and we hear a tune from their new record Murder Burgers. The Shivas are also back with a new record called You Know What To Do. We introduce Groovy Uncle from Britain, Ivory Deville from LA, and a new band from Partibrejker Cane, called Å krtice. They rock – we rock!
December 2 and December 3 of 2014 were two devastating days for rock’n’roll. We lost two true greats, Bobby Keys and Ian McLagan. McLagan started in Small Faces, continued with Faces had some amazing solo records, toured with his Bump Band. Bobby Keys played saxophone and greatly contributed to the golden period of The Rolling Stones – their Sticky Fingers and Exile of Main Street. Ian and Bobby crossed paths several times, on Faces, Ian’s solo records and the most recently actually in Cleveland – for the Rolling Stones tribute organized by the rock hall. This show is dedicated to the two of them. Their sounds are part of the very fabric of rock’n’roll. Thanks comrades!