Jesse 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.
Today we review some parts of the blooming and booming new San Francisco rock’n’roll scene, lead by Ty Segall who has a new album out there called Twins. We also check out the wonderful cajuns from Switzerland, Mama Rosin, who made a new album in New York City with Jon Spencer and also have another ad-hoc project called Les Frères Souchet. Talking about the Francophone stuff, we have a new single for Perpignan’s Jack of Heart and including their potent cover of Gun Club’s For The Love of Ivy recorded live in Cleveland. We close the show with Amy Lavere and Shannon McNally with their new tour rehearsal tapes and with Lucy Kaplansky’s cover of The Beatles tune I’m Looking Through You.
New supergroup today: David Hidalgo from Los Lobos, Luther Dickinson from North Mississippi Allstars and Mato Nanji join forces on a new album together called Three Skulls And The Truth. We have also the new non-album single from Natural Child and a track from a new LP for Suzi Chunk. The new names today are The Shivas from Portland and Forty Nineteens from LA. Famous tribute to the great late Arizona guitarist Rainer Ptacek called The Inner Flame has been reissued with some tracks missing and some new tracks. We check it all out today.
The Dirtbombs from Detroit joined forces with Dan Sartain and Terrible Twos for a new ep release and they cover another act from Detroit on that single – a cult band called Death. Quartet from Pittsburgh, PA Satin Gum are back with their second album, which they call LP2. Mark Eitzel and Rickie Lee Jones have new solo records out. And Crusaders of Love is a new name today, from Lille in France.
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.
The Replacements fans should pay special attention today. We have a new track for Paul Westerberg and also a new one for Chris Mars. Chris’ song is a part of an effort to raise fund for Slim Dunlap’s recovery after a severe stroke this February. And we also have Kevin Bowe, a musician from Minneapolis who collaborates with Westerberg on Bowe’s new record. Nels Cline is on guitar. We also have the brand new album for Natural Child. They already had one really good one earlier this year called For The Love Of The Game (we have a 
Natural Child is a trio from Nashville TN. When you hear Nashville, the immediate association is country music. These three guys though, sound like they could be from Atlanta or Memphis. What we have here is a garage rock dealing. And it’s a lucky draw.
This show is dominated by several new names today. First, we have the Connection – a power pop band from Portsmouth, NH. They are joined by Wyatt Funderbunk as a guest, who we also have for the first time. Then we have the Black Oil Brothers, an interesting unpretentious mixture of traditional blues and other types of art. For instance, on their site you can download a nice story of a struggling painter. Another new name are the Australian band The Murlocks. We also have some good old friends here with new music. Singing Loins are about to put out the new record called Here on Earth and David Eugene Edwards is back with another Woven Hand release. Nick Cave invited Mark Lanegan to sing on the soundtrack for the movie that he wrote Lawless.
In the past decade or so, we witnessed a surge of reunions, particularly of bands that meant something in the seventies and the eighties. Some of the bands just tour, perhaps make a live album and try to relive the past without changing much. Others make new records. Often times the motive is to draw larger crowds to the gigs than each band member would individually, or perhaps these bands simply want to go back to the youthful years. In any case, reunions are typically in shadows of the famous past. Exceptions to the rules are scarce. I can only think of Mission of Burma and their reunion album On Off On which is as great as anything they did before, if not better, more mature and stronger piece. Now we have a new example in Redd Kross.
Three rocking returns today. ZZ Top open the show with a new heavy rocker from their new record La Futura. Dinosaur Jr also rock with a new song from the new record I Bet On Sky. And Ian Hunter is back with a playful new record When I’m President. On the power pop front, we introduce the new artist, a librarian from Portland, Maine, Kurt Baker. Juliana Hatfield is back with a new untitled record. And then we have two new live albums, one for Los Lobos and other for Joe Strummer. Actually, the latter is a combination of an anthology and a live record from his days with The Mescaleros.