Album Reviews

What made Cage the Elephant’s self-titled debut so appealing was that it had both a raw and uncompromising feel to it, while still being a very digestible album.  Matt Shultz was able to capture a live sounding, in-your-face, type of style that applied a choke hold on many a person’s first listens.  Their second record, Thank You Happy Birthday (Jive), continues to have that blend of distorted chaos that combines aggressive rhythmic chords with edgy sarcastic lyrics, though it is slightly more difficult to chew this time around.

The Original Mono Recordings of Bob Dylan are almost as much of a revelation as those of The Beatles, albeit for different reasons. The Bard from Minnesota never took recording as seriously as the Liverpool quartet, but his music lends itself better to the vintage recording technique. A fifteen-track collection culled from his first eight albums illustrates why.

On his debut solo album, Mikey James rebrands himself under the pseudonym Mikey Jukebox and reinvents himself by packaging a disparate collection of influences. It’s not surprising, given the artist’s background. James cut his teeth as a drummer for post-punk band Longwave and a frontman for punk rockers The Blood. That work is contrasted by endeavors as far from punk as possible – fronting DJ Dick James/Footage and power pop band The Mercies.

Sweetkiss Momma, a five-piece rock n roll band, hails from the Pacific Northwest, (most of the band grew up in the churches of Pullayup, WA) but their sound is straight blues based southern rock.  With a regrettable moniker recalling the comical jam band names of the late 90s, Sweet Kiss is nonetheless a barnstorming sensation according to their press release, selling records across Europe and garnering huge sale numbers on independent music distribution website CD Baby. 

Does the world really need another young woman with an acoustic guitar, soulful voice and ear for melody? Yes, it does. Don’t take my word for it, though. Goodnight Company, the third album by Jane Lui, exists because the people demanded it. With half of the album financed by donations from fans on PledgeMusic.com, Lui’s new album is the direct result of making music that the world wants to hear.

Commercially overloaded freak-out pop rock is what Automagik offer up on their debut self titled album.  The all night party vibe that props up tunes like “Hide and Seek” and “Brain Freeze”, make the chaos head bobbing-jump around fun.  Nonsensical lyrics, I won’t even go into “Boogieman”, and all-out good times remind of Cage The Elephant, The Darkness and Weezer. The tracks won’t stick with you for long, but will probably fuel Four Loco like madness while they do. 

Ryan Adams can be easily heard in the opening moments of “The Father,” the rootsy, warm and inviting keeper by Vancouver-via-Los Angeles band HoneyChild. Led by Tobias Jesso, the group nails the opener by balancing delicacy with heaviness. Think of an Americana answer to The National and you might get the gist of the first track.

It only takes a near death experience with an arsonist to make great music. Before making their new album, Lubbock roots rock band Thrift Store Cowboys had a stranger set fire to their trailer filled with merchandise and gear. But it appears that brush with the end fuelled this new effort, one with confidence, consistency and brilliant verve.

Steven Page has the ability to spin a moment of turmoil into both hopeful and hopeless, and it is the oscillation between these two that make him such a strong songwriter. Whereas his co-BNL writer Ed Robertson either came across as too earnest or too banal-parading-as-comedic, Page strikes an excellent emotional balance when deciphering the human experience, and it's no more apparent than on opener "A New Shore."

The four CDs and one DVD in West Coast Seattle Boy seek to dispel the shadows cast over the late guitarist’s legacy by the spate of questionable releases that flooded the marketplace in the wake of his untimely death in 1970. Containing more than a few extended and/or complete recordings that previously appeared in truncated form, this box set also compiles, in rough chronological order, a plethora of song sketches and unfinished master takes that presents what is perhaps the most accurate portrait to date of Jimi Hendrix’ working methods in the recording studio.