The duo of drummer Dean Spunt and guitarist Randy Randall have gained a lot of buzz as No Age and their newest release Everything In Between proves that the hype is well earned. The art-punk-pop LA fellas have crafted the rare beast: a catchy, freaked-out pasture of pumping drums and squealing guitars contained in garage DIY style that is not only listenable, but engaging.
Put together musicians who have played with Zeppelin, Deep Purple and others and you should expect a concoction of ‘70s era hard rock with a blues belting vocal delivery. The new “super group” Black Country Communion is just that. Featuring Glenn Hughes on vocals, master blues-rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa, and Jason Bonham on drums, the band plow through a heavy, riff-saturated opener entitled “Black Country” with Hughes planting himself firmly inside the rocker.
The Budos Band has been playing their brand of “Afro Soul” since 2005, where they’ve recorded at their label's own studio, Daptone's House of Soul, in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Their brand of Afro Soul can best be described as “Ethiopian music with a soul undercurrent to it, sprinkled with a little bit of sweet 60's stuff on top.
So is No Chocolate Cake any good? Honestly, it sounds a heck of a lot like New Miserable Experience, except not as memorable. The band’s sound is almost identical to what it was in its heyday but that’s not really a terrible thing. I didn’t expect anything super adventurous. The hooks are still plaintively sung just not as often as indelible.
If a theme can be gleaned from the album it is that of a man stepping out from the shadows and becoming independent in a crazy and complex world. Fitting perhaps, since Ben Crum is now finally free to follow his musical whims as the solo self-proclaimed “Great Lake”
You can immediately tell what light-year a Joe Satriani album is traveling in by the way the first song definitively captures you with your first listen. The vibrations of his initial entrance are defining points of both his live shows and studio records which electrify listeners time and time again.
When the title track of the new Michael Franti & Spearhead album The Sound Of Sunshine takes off, you might catch yourself thinking that our favorite soldier of peace has gotten a little formulaic. The chukka-chukka-strummed acoustic guitar and walloping backbeat combined with a gotcha-singing-along-the-first-time-through chorus can’t help but remind you of “Say Hey (I Love You)” off 2008's All Rebel Rockers.
Neil Young has just about done everything in his 50 career: country, new-wave, CSNY, Crazy Horse, Pearl Jam, rockabilly, proto-grunge, acoustic folk, rock operas, films, and the list goes on. But it took until 2010 for Young to do something entirely different – record an album without any backing musicians.
Laura Cortese is a singer/songwriter who plays a mean fiddle and has put together an all female string quartet to record her Acoustic Project EP. The group of players consists of Natalie Hass on cello, Brittany Haas contributing the 5-string fiddle parts while Hanneke Cassel strums and plucks the 4-string fiddle. The style of tunes presented by the ladies ranges all over the folk world. There are acoustic pop such as “Perfect Tuesdays”, old rural traditional numbers like “Greasy Coat” and a Celtic flair that emerges on “Women Of The Ages”.
The title of Peter Case’s new album sounds more like a command the more you listen to it. A raucous rock and roll affair (in a mini-lp package right down to CD sleeve) Wig! is decidedly different than the generally low-key, folk-styled recordings Case has done over the last few years, but it’s no less credible.
