CORY BRANAN – MUTT

Jun 082012
 

In the interest of full disclosure I consider Cory a pretty good friend. He’s someone who has slept on my couch, watched Max Headroom with me until dawn, played my older daughter’s birthday party and so on. I thought long and hard about letting someone else write this review so no one could claim that there was nepotism involved. I thought about it. Then I said “fuck that” I’ll write about what I want to write about.

As anyone who has ever spent more than 10 minutes in his company can confirm, Cory Branan is a hot mess! There is no doubt about that. He is all over the map all the time. No two shows are ever the same and his albums even more so, or less so depending on your perspective. Mutt is no exception to this and like everything else Cory does it’s a all over the map but hits all the right destinations. When you take in to account the songs we’ve been hearing at shows for years and the stuff that was sort held back until this release you end up with a crazy trip through Cory’s talent.

Take a look at “Survivor Blues”, both versions, and you’ll see what I mean. The closing version is closest to the live version we’ve heard already and then there’s the Thin Lizzy tribute version. I’ll be honest the Thin Lizzy version took me some time to get used to and even longer to like but it grew on me, slowly but surely, and now I couldn’t tell you which version I like more. I can say that my favorite line from that one changes depending on which version I head last. To me that really demonstrates Cory’s ability.

Now I have to admit I always feel a little guilty when I get a Cory album in my hands because I know that no matter how good it is that I’ll prefer the live version to what he’s laid down for the record. However this Mutt showed me that I shouldn’t assume shit about Mr. Branan! “Snowman” is a track that I don’t hear any differently than it is on the album. I don’t want an acoustic only version. I want to lose myself in that Tom-Waits-esque vibe and let the darkness of the lyrics wash over me and take to me places I usually don’t let my head take me to. Of course I am falling in to the same trap I opened this paragraph with and I am likely to be put in my place when I hear it played live but for now I am a stubborn bastard who doesn’t mind contradicting myself.

I hate saying that someone’s writing has matured and honestly I couldn’t say that with a straight face about this one even if I was inclined to do so. What I can say is that overall it’s a little darker than 12 Songs which is one of the reasons I like it so much. I like a little darkness with escape and this one delivers that very well. My all time favorite from Cory has always been “Whiskey Grove” (yeah, you try getting him to play it live) but I think it’s been usurped by “Lily”, quite possibly because of one single line: Lily I guess the best trick/is to see the magic/once you’ve seen then wires. If I don’t stop now I am likely to ramble on for way too long so I’ll wrap this up and let you get to the actual music…

Overall Mutt is a damn fine showcase for Cory’s writing and good vehicle for MPD style of musical arrangement. Even if you aren’t a fan of Cory’s studio stuff you need to check this one out. I am willing to lay odds that there is at least one track here that will grab your attention. It goes without saying that this is Essential Listening (and the album cover has boobies!). I kinda sorta have permission to give you a stream of Mutt for a couple of weeks but it’s sort of unofficial. So I am going with “It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission” since I didn’t get the final confirmation before the European tour kicked off.

Album stream available (with Cory’s permission) for a limited time:

Cory Branan’s Official Site, Cory Branan on Facebook, Cory Branan on Spotify, Buy Mutt

NOOK & CRANNY — NOOK & CRANNY [EXPLICIT]

Jun 062012
 


“Every one of us reverberates between the ebb and flow of pain and emptiness, jubilation, after glow from fornication.” ~ Nook & Cranny, “Never Again”

Sure, Gainesville’s warmly sinister porch-folk band Nook & Cranny reminds me of such keystone traditionalists as Laura Cantrell and Austin Lucas and Waller and Ollabelle–but for the sake of a less lame review, let’s argue that they have much more in common with seminal San Pedro CA hardcore fellas The Minutemen.

The commonality is that their individual parts are incredible, and the sum of their parts is harmonious, but still so tense that the listener really has no idea how those parts make that whole. In The Minutemen, bassist Mike Watt and guitarist D. Boone were self-taught originals, playing to their instincts, whereas drummer George Hurley played far-out jazz patterns unheard in punk. They never really seemed to be playing along with each other, and they never stood still long enough to verify it, but their individual outputs just aligned so perfectly with each other’s that you couldn’t question how practiced they were at arriving at the same place.

Sometimes it seems that each member of Nook & Cranny is doing his/her own thing on stage. They don’t have a drummer and their lead guitarist is a dobroist. Singer Dana Meyers looses her voice from a wide, commanding stance, beating the band’s only percussion, her tambourine, against her thigh while her co-vocalist Mark Archer stands with his feet pinned tight together, seemingly on the verge of toppling as he flurries away at his hip-height dobro. But their vocal harmonies, usually three or four parts, are unassailable. Bassist Brian Turk and acoustic guitarist Scott Ashcraft are true anchors. Fiddler Andrew Cook slips between the fore- and background of songs like a staircase in an Escher lithograph. They’re a beautiful bottomless tumbler of a band that never lets its drunk get sloppy.

Nook & Cranny was recorded under the aegis of one of Gainesville’s most significant engineers, Rob McGregor. The band is releasing the record itself. Also, they say “fuck” and “shit” and this album is straight gangster. Hence the EXPLICIT warning. Another warning: ESSENTIAL.

Nook & Cranny – Never Again
Nook & Cranny – Stay
Nook & Cranny – The Letter

Buy Nook & Cranny on iTunes, on Amazon, from CD Baby. Follow Nook & Cranny on Facebook. See them live to purchase a CD for yourself and for to get yer socks rocked.

4H ROYALTY — WHERE UFOs GO TO DIE

Jun 042012
 

4H Royalty is back with it’s sophomore release, Where UFOs Go To Die, and it’s so rock solid a six-year-old girl could break out a window with it.  Last year I wrote about their debut, Colossalalia, and mentioned how the songs popped into my head days after listening to them.  Well the same thing happens with Where UFOs Go To Die, the songs don’t seem catchy but they are.  Glossary songs are like that with me as well.

Where UFOs Go To Die is ten songs that run deep. There’s not a single off moment on the album.  With this offering 4H Royalty seems to have gotten more patient with their delivery and allow the songs to not rush themselves.  It’s a small shift but one that pays large dividends.  Good work 4H Royalty.

One of the great things that carries over from Colossalalia to Where UFOs Go To Die is the subject matter in the songs.  In “Accordion Bus” the narrator rides the bus daily next to a woman named Oora (I had to check with the band to get the name right) who says she’s a million year old Christian and an alien.  I haven’t heard every song ever written but I’ll go out on a limb and say no one else has written a song about that.  Also there’s a song about a guy having itchy blood for a girl.  I’m not familiar with the term itchy blood but after a Google search it could refer to symptoms of drug withdraw.  Over my head but poignant with a pinch.  If you’re thinking this might be too much same old alt.alt.country.post.rock.tonk then spend some time with the lyrics.  Even on the songs where the subject is one we’ve heard before (girls, teenage disillusionment, etc) 4H Royalty is coming at it with some odd angle or turn of phrase.

We usually pick three songs to share with you and I’m having a damn hard time picking the three.  I’ll take this as a sign that Where UFOs Go To Die is Essential Listening.  I think Oora would agree.

4H Royalty – Accordian Bus
4H Royalty – Itchy Blood
4H Royalty – Virtues, Spices, & Liquors

4H Royalty’s Official Site, 4H Royalty on Facebook, buy Where UFOs Go To Die

753 CHARACTER REVIEW: BRANDEN BARNETT—VERSE, CHORUS, CURSE

May 232012
 

This is one of those song-by-song reviews of the first time a reviewer hears an album you’ll see here sometimes, except I’m not limiting myself to 140 characters because I have lots of pent-up brain “activity” to dump out. I like this format because it’s like an experiment and I can use the scientific method.

Problem: It’s nice out and you should be listening to music. There’s an album by an amazing songwriter out there that won’t get loads of press because it was just released on Bandcamp and the artist doesn’t get to tour that much. Also, I’ve run out of regular sentences and need some kind of altered framework to force myself to write the review. Can the lazy music reviewer convince his audience to give this gem of an independent album a listen? (Listen to it yourself on Barnett’s Bandcamp; you don’t even have to read this review!)

Background Research: Branden Barnett is the songwriter and lead singer for Columbus Ohio indie rock band Ghost Shirt. Up front, I love Ghost Shirt. “History of the Radio” is a “Heroes and Villains“-grade great song. Barnett and co. followed it up with one of the decade’s best albums, Daniel. I’m serious about how much I love Ghost Shirt. If you take out the occasional Leonard Cohen update, Ghost Shirt is better than any band covered on Pitchfork. They should be college rock legends by now. They haven’t been as active since they attempted a 52 songs in 52 weeks campaign in 2010, but instead wound up with the concept album, Daniel; since then, Barnett has been working on his solo album, Verse, Chorus, Curse, which he funded through Kickstarter. Barnett also produced Shane Sweeney’s The Finding Time.

Hypothesis: Going into this listen, I expect the songs won’t be as lush and orchestral without the rest of Ghost Shirt behind Barnett. I anticipate a sharper sound with lots of synth. WIth a title like Verse, Chorus, Curse, I’m on the lookout for songs that subvert that basic pop song structure. All this based on the two singles and a collection of cover songs Barnett released over the last year to tide folks over while he was building the album.

Here we go: good writing from Barnett, bad writing from me!

Data:

1. “Verse, Chorus, Curse” — A song about breaking routines in love and songwriting, I think. Good, steamrolling intro to the album. “It’s a battleship love.”

2. “Finnegan” — Beatles / Nick Lowe-style power pop. Breaks out into video-game guitar solo at the bridge. “I fed her engine with all of my dreams and slept on the spirals of smoke.”

3. “Last Rites” — Machine whistling leads to more danceable power pow, leads to soul-saving back-half refrain and back to more machine whistling. Brilliant. “If only licking wounds was foreplay.”

4. “Paralyzed by Love” — A different version than the single he released last year. Rusty, gorgeous violin from Ghost Shirt bandmate Samantha Kim, who produced this whole affair. Song of Joey Ramone-esque sincerity and simplicity.

5. “Jack-O-Lantern” — By this point, Barnett has killed it on every chorus; but this might be the catchiest so far. This song could fit on a Ghost Shirt album. Should be on the radio (cough).

6. “Shadow of Vultures” — See, I’m running out of ways to say “Yes. Yes, keep on rocking.”

7. “I Wanna Be Your House” — Total Brian Wilson–Stephen Merritt synthesis, but wholly Barnett’s presence. “I wanna be your house, I’ll be your morning paper.”

8. “Heart Won’t Bend” — This was the other single he released last year; this version sticks pretty close.

9. “Bricks and Wires” — Closer on piano, violin joins late. Standard and fucking devastating. “You have always been the city to me, bricks and wires pass right through me.”

Conclusion: Essential Listening. The songs don’t necessarily subvert the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-repeat structure; they tinker, hone, and restore that structure. “All that I want is a head full of nothing, and ocean of sound, and the heart of a beautiful girl. This is all that it was, this is all that it ever could be.” The pop curse broken by a batch of well-crafted songs that you can drink and dance and drink and dance alone to. What more could you want?

Works Cited:

Visit Brandon Barnett’s bandcamp, listen to the album in-full, and buy Verse, Chorus, Curse. Buy it from iTunes*. Visit Barnett’s website. Follow Ghost Shirt on Facebook.

* iTunes has a different track order than Barnett’s Bandcamp. Actually, it looks like it would be a pretty good sequence. But I went through the Bandcamp bill.

Branden Barnett – Finnegan
Branden Barnett – Last Rites
Branden Barnett – Paralyzed By Love
Branden Barnett – JackOLantern

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE – NOTHING’S GONNA CHANGE THE WAY YOU FEEL ABOUT ME NOW

May 182012
 

Justin Townes Earle has returned with his 5th album which has a title long enough for the next two, Nothing’s Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now. I have a feeling that the title, along with the subject matter of a lot of this album is a reference to his well publicized battles with drugs and his relapse last year. I feel no need to rehash those battles here. If you’re a fan of Americana music you already know all about them, and if you don’t you’re better off for it.

The wife and I recently took off on a 4 day beach getaway up in North Florida and I brought this album along for our listening pleasure. I only mention this ‘cause I wanna explain how intimately I got to know this album over those 4 days. In the end, I expect I spent about 15 hours listening to it and thinking about how I was enjoying it. I’ve seen some people pan the album for various reasons, and I can’t tell you whether or not you’re gonna like the it. I can, however, tell you that I like the cd. I like it a lot. Like, Essential Listening lot, and here are some of my thoughts about it.

The first solid opinion I had on the the album hit me somewhere around Starke. The wife was sleeping and I was in the middle of one of those rainstorms I don’t think you get anywhere outside of Florida. Mentally, I was at total peace, as I love thunderstorms and the brand new tires on the truck, plus the inability to exceed 25 mph and see out the windshield alleviated any hydroplaning worries. There, in the middle of the rain, I realized how perfect this album is for solo road-tripping. The mild pacing of the album seems almost made for driving alone.

The second solid thought I had about the album was how much I hated the song “Unfortunately, Anna” while my third was how “Unfortunately, Anna” sounds like it should be a Counting Crows song. I still don’t like “Unfortunately, Anna” as a JTE song but I am pretty confident I’d love it if the Counting Crows covered it.

The next thought that really settled in was how well the “Memphis sound” fits Justin’s songs. I probably could have talked about this when I was mentioning how good of a road trip album this is, but I wanted to mention it separately. It seems like there is a definite trend in the Americana scene right now to implement horns and keys and justify it by saying they wanted to add some Memphis swag to their sound. I don’t doubt any of them, and some are doing it with great success (see Lucero) but Justin doesn’t sound like he’s “going Memphis” with Nothings Gonna Change, at least…not to me. With Nothings Gonna Change it sounds like Justin tapped into the heart of where his soul currently is. Some reviewers have called it “tired”, others have called it “haggard”, but I think it’s sincere. I really feel like this album’s sound and feel was born out of recovery, and the need for complete honesty with one’s self during that process made its way into the writing and recording of this album.

Justin Townes Earle – Am I That Lonely Tonight?
Justin Townes Earle – Memphis In The Rain

Justin Townes Earle’s Official Site, Justin Townes Earle on Facebook, Justin Townes Earle on Spotify, Buy Nothing’s Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now

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