Jeff Buckley is an amazing vocalist, we all know this, he's a massive influence on Thom Yorke, and subsequently probably any singer from the late 90's onwards who uses falsetto vocals. What doesn't tend to get mentioned as often is what a fantastic and distinctive guitarist he is too. His mostly clean Telecaster sounded amazing and for me is equally as good as his voice, the eastern influenced melodies on "Dream Brother", the lightning fast arpeggio's on "Grace" and the crushing riffs on "Eternal Life" are all pretty much perfect. Grace has some amazing moments, but I could have done without the cover of Benjamin Brtten's "Corpus Christi Carol" which seems designed purely to showcase his voice, and the rather dull version of "Lilac Wine". His cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is beautiful, but it's the original, self penned songs that are the best tracks here.
The opening two songs "Mojo Pin" and "Grace" were co written with ex Captain Beefheart guitarist Gary Lucas and their swirling guitar parts are complex and gorgeous at the same time. "Last Goodbye" combines slide guitar and a 90's alt rock bassline tocreate one of the albums most infectious songs but the absolute masterstroke on the album is "Lover You Should Have Come Over"...
Soul Brother number one actualy died on Christmas Day. put a bit of a downer on my Christmas that year, I never got to see him play live. But this album gives you plenty of reasons to associate James Brown with Chrimbo in a positive way. "Santa Claus Go Straight o The Ghetto" is almost as brilliant as its title, "Lets Make Christmas Mean Someting This Year Pt 1 & 2" is a beautiful soul ballad, and there are some excellent funk jams such as "Go Power At Christmas Time" and the utterly mighty "Hey America!"
There's a lot of gospel influenced traditionalsoul tracks on here which are great, but James Brown is alway a his best when he's bringing the funk. here's "Hey America"...
So, It's December, nearly Christmas (if the world doesn't end on Friday anyway...) So It's good that the next two albums to listen to are two of the three Christmas albums I own (By my current calculations I'll probably be listening to the other one, She & Him's Christmas album, somewhere around July...). I'm a big Bright Eyes fan. His/Their music is very influential on my own band and as previously mentioned, Saddle Creek is one of my favouite record labels. A Christmas Album is fairly dark though, Basically Bright Eyes main man Conor Oberst and Azure Ray's Maria Taylor rope in the rest of the musicians on Saddle Creek at the time for a subdued run through a selection of mostly traditional Chrimbo songs. We're talking more "Silent Night" and "Away In A Manger" than Slade and Gary Glitter here.
Its the kind of album that takes a few listens before it clicks, and because it's a Christmas album those few listens can be few and far between. I've had it for about 7 or 8 years and it only really fell into place for me about 2 years ago, and even now I have to be in the right mood for it. Here's the version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"...
The Brian Jonestown Massacre are very hit and miss. If you've seen the excellent music documentary "DIG!!!" whcih shows how their love/hate relatonship with The Dandy Warhols, You'll be familiar with how they sabotage their own careers at fairly regular intervals. Therir live shows can be transcendental psychedelic rock and rol extravaganzas, or the can fall apart within a few songs with the band splitting up on stage. They're kind of like America's answer to The Fall in a lot of respects. One main driving force ad a revolving cast of other band members who could be sacked or leave the band at any minute. Musically The Brian Jonestown Massacre are a Velvet Underground influenced garage rock mob who one minute come out with sublime psychpop gems such as "When Jokers Attack" and another minute, sound like a sub-Oasis teenage cover band noodling around with cliched pentatonic scales and terrible lyrics. In that sense this particular compilation album is a true representation of the band, rather than cherry picking the good songs for a best of, this is a warts and all, sprawling double CD ranging from the excellent, to the incredibly skippable.
When they're bad, they tend to sound like a parody of every 60's rock cliche you can think of, but when they're good, they're excellent. It's worth sifting through the lesser tracks to get to the good shit. The spot on critique of their friends/rivals The Dandy Warhols on "Not If You Were The Last Dandy On Earth" is a particular high point, but for me, the best thing they ever did was the live version of "Swallowtail" exclusive to this compilation...
Brain Donor is a power trio "Stuporgroup" featuing Julian Cope on bass and vocals, and Spiritualized duo, Doggen on guitar and Kevlar Bales on Drums. They play a ridiculously loud blend of Van Halen style Metal and Stooges style garage punk. The excellently titled "Love Peace & Fuck" is their debut album and perfectly channels Cope's well documented love of Japanese Rock and Roll lunatics like Guitar Wolf and Speed, Glue & Shinki. Played at maximum volume, on double necked guitars while wearing dayglo facepaint and platform boots.
It's an acquired taste, but I've certainly acquired it. 15 minute long jams with titles like "Pagan Dawn", "Odins Gift To His Mother" and this one, "Get Off Your Pretty Face" turn it up, grow your hair and rock the fuck out...
I'm a big fan of The Bard of Barking. Obviously it helps that i'm one of those lefty pinko communist types, but even in his non political songs (which there are more than you may think), Theres a strong case for him being Britains greatest living lyricist. Mr Love & Justice is his 12th studio album and the second to feature his backing band, The Blokes. This particular version is the limited editon double CD version, so you get the full band version of the album, along with a stripped down solo version, Identical to the versios of the songs Billy plays on tour. His voice has got stronger and more controlled over the years and the full band versions of the songs fit perfectly to create one of his best albums.
Among the musicians on the album is Billy's longtime collaborator Ian Mclagan, formerly of The Faces, and Robert Wyatt pops up on backing vocals on the album's lead single "I Keep Faith". here's a live version...
Like The Afghan Whigs, Brad are a Grunge band with Soul influences. I (and probably most people who own this album) was attracted to the band via their connection to Pearl Jam. They share a guitarist in Stone Gossard, and Pearl Jam's other guitarist Mike McCready guest's on "The Day Brings" from this album. There's a laid back, 70's pop influenced tinge to the album which reminds me of Big Star, Fleetwood Mac and even Wings in parts, but there's also straight ahead Grunge Rock tracks like opener "Secret Girl".
There's a bit of a lull in the middle of the album but there's some beautifully crafted songs on here. I was going to go for "Some Never Come Home" with it's gorgeous blend of piano, guitar and mellotron, But probably the most representative track is the album's lead single "The Day Brings"...
Another one that's not so good. Boy Hits Car were an American Alternative Metal band who I saw and quite liked for a few months in about 2001ish. I've always been a big fan of Incubus, and it's fairly obvious Boy Hits Car are too, as they sound almost exactly like Incubus, with more 12 string acoustic guitar, contrived hippyesque lyrics and none of the really good songs. Don't get me wrong, they're ok, but there's nothing really on this album that makes me want to play it over and over again.
Apparently one of the tracks on this album was the intro music for a wrestler I've never heard of, And the bass player now does voice acting in various cartoons, usually credited as "other voices", and the singer looks exactly like that dickhead from Toploader. I bought the album when i was about 18 or 19 and must have liked it at the time, but like the haircut I had back then, I have no idea why i thought it was a particularly good idea. All the songs sound pretty much the same so here's the preposterously titled "I'm A Cloud", see how long you can last before wanting to punch the singer...
Its probably a dead heat between this and Hunky Dory for the accolade of being my favourite Bowie album. Ziggy Stardust is an absolute bloody masterpiece. Bowie's songwriting was perfect, the concept excellent (the album is set 5 years before the end of the world and tells the story of an alien rockstar sent to spread a message of hope to humanity), Mick Ronson's guitar playing is sublime and the overall arrangements and producton couldn't be any better. From the opening "Five Years" to the closing desperation of "Rock & Roll Suicide" there's not a second of it's 38 minutes wasted.
This is another one of those albums that you really should own, seriously, go and order it now because it's fantastic. It's got "Starman", "Ziggy Stardust", "Rock And Roll Suicide" and "Suffragette City" on it, plus a few you may not know which are just as good. here's "Moonage Daydream"...
Bossk are named after a fairly obscure bounty hunter from The Empire Strikes Back, and play slow, brooding Post-Metal which builds from quiet melodic clean guitar parts into crushing metal riffage. They're mostly instrumental and sound similar to Isis, "Mr Beast" era Mogwai (Specifically "Glasgow Mega Snake") and Pelican.
This is a 2 track EP but is over 35 minutes long, so you definitely get your moneys worth. The band split in 2009 but have recently reformed so are worth chcking out when they play live next year. I've seen them a few times and they've been consistantly fantastic each time. I Particularly like the opening track "1" whcih opens with quiet Ebowed guita before gatting heavier and heavier. there doesn't seem to be a full studio version of it on youtube so here's a slightly edited down version...
Mr Jon Spencer is a Rock and Roll legend. either with his Blues Explosion, Rockabilly lunatics Heavy Trash, 80's Garage Punks Pussy Galore and this band, the Hip Hop/Rock Influenced Boss Hog. Led by Spencer's wife Christina Martinez as their vocalist, Boss Hog sound similar to a female fronted Blues Explosion, with more emphasis on keyboards and poppier melodies. The album has a similar kind of vibe to Beck's "Odelay", with it's 60's inspired organs, distorted guitar and hip hop beats.
Whiteout is their third and possibly final album, released in 1999, although they have toured again more recently so there's hope they may release anothe in the future. "Itchy & Scratchy" from his album was featured on a Levi's advert at the time so is probably their most well known song, however "Get It While You Wait" is my favourite of the 11 tracks on offer. here it is...
I loved Bon Iver's debut album so much for it's stripped down isolated sound, that when I heard the follow up was a much more expansive, full band recording, I avoided listening to it for a few months. This was a mistake. A while after the album was released they were on "Later With Jools Holland". I sat there transfixed as they played the albums opening cut "Perth", with it's beautiful, open tuned elecric guitars, military style drums and gorgeous horns. Literally seconds after the song had finished I had already ordered the album from those lovely tax avoiders at Amazon. For me, Justin Vernon can do no wrong. Even the ridiculously 80's sounding Korg M1 electric piano doesn't sound out of place, where in lesser hands it could ruin an entire recording (In fact, it was a beautiful thing to wake up in a tent to the sound of the Korg M1 being soundchecked at this years Latitude festival).
Where the previous album had been almost all acoustic guitar and vocals with very little other instrumentation, "Bon Iver" is a lush sounding record with almost any instrument Vernon and his 11 other bandmates could get their hands on. Yet despite the expansive sound, The album still sounds like a continuation from where the previous record left off. There were little hints of electronic textures here and there and Justin Vernon's multitracked vocals tie it all together excellently.The whole album is damn near perfect. definitely one of my most listened to in the past year, and they're amazing live too. Here's the "Later With Jools Holland" appearance, with 3 tracks, "Towers", "Perth" and "Calgary"...
So here's a band I don't know too much about. They're Japanese, Completely Insane, Supported Chrome Hoof in Birmingham a while ago (where I bought this EP) and sound like Melt Banana playing Black Sabbath covers. Koroshitai Kimochi is their debut EP and if the packaging is to be believed, seems to have been in a limited edition of 30 copies. It's only 4 tracks long but in it's 17 minutes takes in metal, jazz, punk and psychedelic rock. The lyrics are entirely in Japanese so I have no idea what the songs are about, but sometimes that's a good thing, also all of the band members look like Sadako from "The Ring"...
So, I was a bit of a double agent in the Britpop Wars. Outwardly at least, in my house, I was the Oasis fan and my sister was the Blur fan, but we both changed sides more often than a french Professor Snape. I first bought "Modern Life Is Rubbish" on cassette from the sadly missed Music Junction record shop in Tamworth in about 1995ish. My sister already had "Parklife" and I wanted to investigate further. "Modern Life Is Rubbish" is an album born from desperation. Blur had been backed into a corner by an indifferent public, outwardly hostile attention from the music press and worst of all, the burgeoning success of their arch rivals Suede. In addidition to all this the music industry in the early 90's was incredibly dominated by American music, and British bands attempting to sound American in response. This album was one of the main things to change that. Blur were at this point heavily influenced by The Kinks and The Small Faces and their English sounding pop songs abut suburban life were very important in putting the "Brit" in "Britpop".
Probably my favourite Blur album, When seeing them live recently, songs from "Modern Life Is Rubbish" have been hilights of the sets, not as overplayed as the singles from "Parklife" but stil retaining the same pop energy. Probably the best representation of the album is it's biggest single and opening track "For Tomorrow"...
The Bluetones are one of those bands history doesn't really have a lot of time for. They're most likely nobody's favourite band and their albums never tend to show up in "Best Album Of All Time" polls, but I kinda like em. "Expecting To Fly" probably never changed anyone's life, but it's a nice collection of jangly indie guitar pop. I first heard this album when i was 14 or 15 on a Duke Of Edinburgh award "Initiative weekend" (in other words, a hike to a campsite using maps to find our way, then camping, cooking our own food and hiking back the next day. Apparently using your initiative to buy a steak sandwich from some people having a barbecue elsewhere on the camp site "Is not in the spirit of things" so I never got the award...). I borrowed the tape from one of the girls hiking with us, in exchange for Supergrass's "I Should Coco" if i remember corectly, and it helped pass the tedium for a while.
They take their influences from The Kinks and The Byrds with jangly Rickenbacker's and 12 strings all over the place. The album got to number one in the charts (knocking oasis from the top, albeit only for one week) and the album spawned 3 top 10 singles, "Bluetonic", "Cut Some Rug" and "Slight Return", which are all pretty good (as are a few of their later singles), but my favourite track is "Putting Out Fires"...
