MS MR’s full-length debut Secondhand Rapture (out now on Columbia Records) features a rich, consistent and at times addicting sound that reveals the band’s tremendous potential across twelve tracks.
13 is a classic Sabbath album in every sense of the word. The recording features eight songs that come in at just under, sixty minutes, just like a record from the golden age of rock. The album features a blues drenched metal sound that is the closest sounding recording to the band’s first album, that the group has ever produced. Harkening back to the American black blues sounds of the fifties and sixties that influenced all of the top English rock bands (The Stones, Led Zeppelin) of their generation, there is even a bit of harmonica on one track. But make no mistake this is a heavy metal album in every sense of the word
As the Grateful Dead organization entered its transition from an independent business entity to its full-fledged collaboration with Rhino Records in the middle of the last decade, the titles in the ‘Dick’s Pick’s’ archive series became available only sporadically. Beginning in 2011, however, Real Gone Music began the regular reissue of the titles. Dick’s Picks #24, recorded March 1974 at the venerable Cow Palace, is testament to a high level of inspiration in the band’s playing, no doubt elevated even further as it takes place on the group's home turf in San Francisco. Even more notably, this concert represents the first use of the hallowed ‘Wall of Sound’ in its entirety.
A year ago last spring, the Revivalists released their strongest album to date: City Of Sound. With more attention to the actual sound of the music, they have grown by leaps and bounds into a solid hornet’s nest buzzing with funk, horns and rock & roll while retaining their kicking foal spirit. Shaw, not one to stand behind a microphone and emote, herks and jerks with a spasmodic, almost Iggy Pop versatility that attracts the youth gone wild members of their audience to jump up and down with him, singing along, like the band has been around a lot longer than they actually have. It takes a certain vivaciousness to be the next big thing – and the Revivalists are certainly on their way.
